


Better Than Quidditch

by thepsychicwolf



Category: Harry Potter RPF, Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Derek and Scott are Brothers, F/M, M/M, Wizarding World, sterek
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-03-22
Updated: 2014-07-15
Packaged: 2018-01-16 14:49:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 9
Words: 32,322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1351432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thepsychicwolf/pseuds/thepsychicwolf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Derek is Scott's older brother. Their wizard father left when Scott was seven and Derek was thirteen. Derek was already in Hogwarts, so for four years Scott just lived in Birmingham with their mom. When Scott was seven, he met Stiles Stilinski and they instantly became each other's best friends, and only friends really. Derek was in sixth year when Scott and Stiles came to Hogwarts, meaning that Stiles and Derek only attend the school together for two years, which is when, despite the age differences, they become friends, sort of. But after Derek leaves, Stiles doesn't speak to him for years until one day when he's in his final year of Hogwarts, Derek happens to be his defense against the Dark Art's Professor.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue - Little League

**Author's Note:**

> Stiles and Scott are seven years old and just meeting for the first time at a Quidditch meet, where a coach is putting kids into different tiers to join a Little Quidditch League team for the season.

"Stilinski!" The coach groaned at the small child with the mop hair. Stiles Stilinski was a seven year old boy from London who just wanted to learn to play quidditch but just could not get the hang of it. There were only a few people on the field that day, none of them who Stiles knew. Another boy with eyes as brown and puppy-dog like as his, was doing a million times better than Stilinski. He was the coach's favourite.  
Stiles tried picking up his mini broom again. His mom bought it for his birthday after he had begged for a whole year. It was good quality, fast enough for a kid like him, meaning it was expensive, and he didn't want to disappoint his mom by sucking at flying. The other boy flew perfectly and Stiles envied him until he saw that the kid sort of sucked at understanding the actual rules. That's what Stiles was good at. He studied quidditch for a long time before this. He knew every rule, and watched the world cup on his television every year since he can remember. But he never thought that actually doing it would be so hard, and so uncomfortable for his bum. The players on TV did it so swiftly, and now he understood why they were called professionals.  
Stiles got back on his broom while the other boy flew circles around his head. Stiles wished he had his skill, then he'd be the perfect player. Stiles got into the air, just near the other boy who had the quaffle. "Hey!" he smiled, passing it to him. Stiles clumsily caught it and had to grip onto the broom firmly so he wouldn't fall. "Your name is Stiles, right?" Stiles nodded, giving the kid a small smile. He responded with a dopey grin, "I'm Scott."  
"Cool, fly over there so I can pass you the quaffle!" Stiles nodded towards the mini goal posts. Scott excitedly flew quickly towards them and Stiles passed him the quaffle. His throw, luckily, was perfect and Scott then threw it in the goal post and it was perfect also. He heard the coach applauding them down from the ground.  
He and Stiles made their way to the coach, high-fiving each other once their feet were firmly planted on the ground and Stiles was certain that he wouldn't fall over. The coach patted both of them on the back, "Great team work, boys! Stilinski, you're improving."  
Scott smiled at Stiles again, "You're good!"  
Stiles shrugged, "I just passed you the quaffle." Stiles then heard a honk and saw his dad's cruiser in the parking lot waiting for him. He knew his dad was supposed to come early because he had work and he needed to drop him off at the babysitter's, but he didn't want to leave so soon. "That's my dad."  
"Tell him you're improving," the coach says, jotting some things on a yellow legal pad. "You should join the little league. We'd need a few players like you."  
Stiles smiled to himself and wiped his knees from the dust when the coach turned away to pay attention to the other kids again. He didn't realize Scott was staring at him. "Um," Scott tapped on his shoulder. "We should join a team together. If you want to, I mean." Scott was nervous and playing with his helmet when asking him. Like Stiles, he didn't really have friends.  
"Yea! That'd be awesome!" Stiles nodded. Maybe you could come over some time and we could practice passing. Or maybe just hang out for a while?"  
Scott nodded back eagerly, "Cool, yeah!" He ran to the coach, tapping annoyingly on his shoulder. Stiles watched as the coach rolled his eyes and wrote something down then ripped some paper, handing it to Scott. Scott quickly ran back to Stiles, and before Stiles could realize what was going on, he was being handed a phone number. "Call me tomorrow."  
Stiles took it, smiling at it, "Yea. See you, Scott."  
"See you, Stiles!"


	2. Milk Mustache

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Scott sent Derek a letter which arrived a week before Derek had to go home for Winter Holidays. When he arrives home, he meets the small and sort of irritating, Stiles Stilinski.

 

It was a week before Christmas holidays when Derek finally got a letter from Scott. Derek Hall was in his third year at Hogwarts. His best friend, Albus, who was in Gryffindor with him, was also on the quidditch team with him. They were sitting in the great hall when Derek was reading the letter with a little smile on his face from his brother's quick message.

Albus snatched the letter from his hands, "Who's Scott?" Albus gave him a little wink causing Derek to roll his eyes.

"My little brother," Derek almost growled as he took his letter back. "I haven't spoken to him since I left to come here this year."

"Don't you have an owl back at home?" Albus joked.

"No." Derek simply said, folding the letter and putting it in his pocket. "They live in a muggle area, so owls aren't exactly normal. Plus Scott's quidditch payments are hard for my mom."

"You know that I'd pay for a better broom for you, right?" Albus said to Derek. He had been offering to pay for Derek's new broom since the season began. Derek's broomstick did him enough good that he had helped his team win most of the games that year, but there was always room for improvement, especially appearance wise.

"I'm already one of the best players on the team," Derek muttered before taking a big bite of his lunch. With his mouth full he said, "It wouldn't be good for the other teams."

Albus pinches Derek's cheek, "Well you're just a cocky little bugger, aren't you?"

Derek smiled to himself once Albus finally left him alone and started talking to another Gryffindor named Elsa. She was blonde and usually wore her hair in a braid. Derek had been trying to get with her since September. He, Elsa, and Albus were inseparable, and professor Longbottom once told them that they reminded him of the famous Harry Potter and his friends. Albus was Harry's son, but he never spoke about life back home. Everyone already looked at him like he was some big star for being a Potter, and Derek knew Albus hated the rumours spread about him, so he never asked what it was like. The problem with Elsa was, she had her eyes on a fifth year student. His name was Dalton Whittemore and he had beautiful blue eyes and arms nicer than Derek's, but Derek and Albus were about one hundred percent sure that he was gay. One of the sixth years was having a party the first weekend that school had started, which Derek and Albus snuck in to. Dalton happened to be there as well, and Albus accidentally walked in on him making out with another guy when trying to find the washroom. Dalton still eyes Albus every once in a while.

"Derek?" Derek snapped his head up as Elsa called his name. "You're going home for Christmas this year, right?"

He nodded. "My brother is playing on the town's little quidditch league and he probably wants to show me what he's learned. Also, I miss my mum."

Elsa giggled, "That's sweet of you. My little sister, Allison, is probably around the same age as your brother. But my family lives in France, so they wouldn't have met each other before."

"I wish you lived in England, then we could visit each other more often."

"I already spend a majority of my year with you two. You can live without me for two weeks." Elsa smiles and he catches her looking away. He turns his head a bit to see that Dalton is sitting at the Ravenclaw table. Quickly, Dalton looks back at Derek, holding his gaze for a few good seconds before turning back to his friends.

***

* * *

"Derek!" the familiar voice of Scott greeted him once he opened the door of his flat, his mom close behind him. Scott came running in the main entry room just as Derek was putting down his bag. Scott didn't look too different. He had gotten a little bit taller, and a little less babyish. But he was still little Scott.

He ran up to Derek, giving him a nice hug. "Did you remember to bring me anything this time?"

Derek chuckled lightly, bringing out a small bag full of chocolate frogs and Bertie Botts Every Flavoured Beans, which he bought from the train ride home. The last time he had come home, he'd forgotten to buy something for Scott. The poor kid was pretty disappointed. Living in the world of wizardry was such a norm for Derek that going home to the muggle world was like a cool trip across the universe. He knew it was the opposite for Scott, who always was desperate to learn magic.

Their mom, Melissa, pushed Derek to the side a little bit as he was blocking the doorway."Scott, you better let me try some of that this time!"

Scott smiled, hugging Derek one last time before handing his mom a chocolate frog and running back into the living room. Melissa shook her head then held the frog up to Derek, "Chocolate Frog? Is it a real frog?"

"Not exactly. You'll be alright," Derek smiled. She seemed pleased as she opened the thing and got her frog which only jumped around in her palm for about two seconds before Derek told her to just eat it; she always was fond of the different things that the magical candy was capable of. But then she looked at the collectors card; the card happened to have the famous wizard, Peter Hall on it, who also happened to be Derek's uncle.

She sighed, handing the card to him, "Peter shouldn't be some big icon. He was kind of an asshole."

He stuffed the card into one of his pockets. "Whatever. No one I know really cares about him."

Melissa changed the topic, "I'm glad school is going well."

"Yes, and all my marks are high... well, except potions. But I'm doing perfect in Defence Against the Dark Arts."

Melissa rolled her eyes and patted his shoulder. "Good. If there's ever another war in the wizard world then you can protect us. It's not like you're going to be throwing potions at the bad guys." That caused Derek to smirk a little bit. "Now go put your bags in your room. We're ordering pizza and then you have to go to bed."

Derek didn't argue. He hadn't had pizza for so long, and he was also tired so he was probably going to sleep right away anyways. He took his bags upstairs to his small room, which still had a Gryffindor flag as the only decoration on the wall. His owl, SJ, hated coming home, because Hogwarts was her home. Derek also considered Hogwarts his home. He enjoyed Christmas breaks because they were only two weeks and it was always nice to have a break, but the summer vacation was too long for his liking. He let SJ out of her cage to fly around the room. He'd make sure to let her outside in the morning. Then Derek ran downstairs again, where Scott was happily eating beans and watching something on TV. Derek jumped beside him, taking a bean for himself which he knew was cotton candy flavored, the second he put it in his mouth.

Derek chewed, "Have you gotten an ear wax? They're disgusting. So is vomit, obviously."

"Not yet. I think I've had a coffee, peaches, and soap which was the only disgusting one."

Derek made a face, thinking about it, "I've never had soap flavored."

"Yea. It was horrible! I thought my mouth would feel clean or something after but nope!"

Derek looked at Scott confusedly, "Did you really think that? It's supposed to be a sweet, it's not going to clean your mouth and cure cavities."

Scott sunk into the couch and just shrugged embarrassingly. Derek was always much smarter than Scott, but when Derek wasn't home Scott would forget about that. Now that Derek was home, Scott felt kind of idiotic. Luckily Stiles was coming over the next day so they could be idiots together.

"Pizza's here!" Melissa called from the kitchen. Scott practically jumped on Derek and beat him to the kitchen. Derek went to grab Scott and himself a plate. Once they grabbed their pizza, they head back to the living room where Melissa even joined them and the three of them watch TV and eat pizza until the sun went down.

* * *

***

Derek woke up and saw that it was nearly noon already. He took a deep breath in, thinking about what to do with his day. He did have a little bit of homework to do during the holidays but there was no way he was doing that any time soon. If he really wanted to he could call up Albus, but he probably wanted to spend time with his family. Also, hanging out with the Potters was something Derek had never gotten the pleasure of doing and quite frankly he didn't think he was prepared to do. He couldn't even imagine meeting Harry, let alone sharing a pot of tea with him. Derek got out of bed thinking that he should do just that, spend time with his own family, and share some tea. He put on some sweat pants and grabbed his Gryffindor sweater but didn't bother zipping it up. Once he got downstairs, he saw that no one was home but this random kid who's sitting at their kitchen table, drinking some chocolate milk. Derek walked over to the fridge to see that the kid had apparently been actually drinking the last of the chocolate milk. He groaned and poured himself some regular milk while putting some bread in the toaster.

"Can I see your wand?" The kid blurted out. Derek had chosen to ignore that the his eyes were on him the whole time, behind his shaggy brown hair.

"I'm not allowed to do magic outside of school," Derek simply stated. He's had to remind Scott the same thing about a million times. "Plus, it's upstairs."

"Oh." The kid just went back to drinking his chocolate milk and staring at Derek. Derek decided to drink his milk as well, and stare back at him, which ends in a bit of a staring contest. "You have a milk-stache," the young boy tells Derek, eyes still wide and unblinking.

Derek wiped his mouth, "You have chocolate on your shirt." The kid then gets a bit embarrassed and blinks when he looks at his shirt, "What?" Derek smiles at the kid who so far as ridiculous as Scott. He looks back up at Derek, "No I don't!"

Derek's toast pops and he goes to grab it, and put on some butter. "So you're Stiles, I'm guessing?"

The kid, Stiles, nodded. "Scott is in the washroom. But he took his comic book with him which usually indicates that he's going to be a while."

Derek sighs, "Do you want to watch something on the television? Do you like Doctor Who? You probably don't, I mean, Scott hates it. But I promise, it's awesome-"

"I love Doctor Who," Stiles says a bit too excitedly. "Finally, I have someone to watch it with."

Derek wanted to correct him by saying that he'd only be here for two weeks, but who cares. This kid was six years younger than him and it's not like they were actually going to be friends. The two of them sat on the couch and they started to watch an old episode that they'd both seen before, but they didn't care. They didn't get very far in because Scott came back. He smiled the second he saw Derek, "Good morning! You met Stiles, I see." Stiles gave Derek a hopeful look, but Derek couldn't tell why until Scott groaned, "Geez. Doctor Who? Again!? Stiles, I'm sorry about my brother."

Derek took the blame as he understood that Stiles probably has to pretend he doesn't like Doctor Who when he's around Scott. "I wanted to show him the show. I'm sorry-"

"No," Stiles interrupted suddenly. "Scott, I need to tell you something." Stiles stood up, wiping his hands on his jeans. "I like Doctor Who. Actually, I love it." Derek found himself rolling his eyes at how dramatic Stiles was. "It's just who I am. A whovian."

Scott raised an eyebrow. "Okay... I guess we can finish this one episode."

The excited look on Stiles' face had Derek grinning and shaking his head because the kid was so ridiculous. Stiles jumped back on the couch, and he looked up at Derek and whispered, "Thanks."

"For what?" Derek asked. Scott ignored them and glumly sat on the other couch, trying to figure out what was happening in the show. Stiles shrugged and then went back to watching the show, annoyingly bouncing his leg constantly.

* * *

***

Derek pressed an ice pack to his cheek, glaring at his mom who kept on laughing. Stiles had hit him in the face with the ball they were using while playing a mini game of quidditch in the yard. Well, minus broomsticks and goal posts or any form of magic, meaning they were really just throwing different balls at each other and at the fences. Derek had spent not even a day back home and he wanted to go back to Hogwarts, away from this "Stiles" kid. Scott was right when he told Derek in his letter that Stiles would "probably annoy him". He was glad Scott was at least a pretty normal kid and Derek didn't mind having him as a brother. But the whole time they were playing their game, Stiles kept missing every shot, or slipping on nothing, all while annoyingly asking Derek what the Hogwarts teams were like. It wasn't until Derek had gotten hit in the face that he couldn't take it anymore and he went inside. Melissa had seen it all happen from their window and kept teasing Derek how he got grumpy over everything. Stiles ho he luckily took him away to another room and just left Derek alone after repeatedly apologizing. One of his parents was on his way to pick him up. Scott could tell that Derek was going to punch the kid if he didn't leave him alone. 

Melissa continued with her giggles, "Oh dear, if you keep your face like that it's going to stick."

Derek just continued with his glares. "Good. Then maybe people would finally get the hint that I'm angry." 

Melissa sighed and held his cheek, "Oh I missed you." That was when the doorbell rang, which happened to be the same time the oven timer went off. "Oh go answer the door, please! Tell Claudia about what happened-" 

"Claudia?" 

Melissa was already attending to the oven. "Stiles' mom. She's very cool. She teaches at the boys' school. Just make sure she knows Stiles isn't banned from our home. He doesn't really have many friends." 

Derek instantly felt kind of bad for being mean to the kid. This morning Stiles was alright, but once he spent more than an hour with him, it was hard to not notice the way he'd constantly be moving or making so much noise without even saying anything. Derek knew Scott had gotten teased for being a loner before, and Scott was just a normal kid. So for a kid like Stiles, the bullying must have been bad, quite often. 

Derek sighed, walking to the door and answering it like his mom said. A young woman stood on their porch with a sweet smile on her face. She looked like an older female version of Stiles, but with curly hair. She instantly went in for a hug. Derek wasn't a fan of huggers. "Hello. I'm Claudia, Stiles' mother. You must be Derek," she smiled once she stepped back again and held his shoulders. "You're shorter than Scott described you... Oh goodness, what happened to your face?"

Stiles and Scott came running in and Stiles stared at Derek wide eyed. Derek took a breath in and explained. "There was a little accident while we were practicing some quidditch." Claudia gave Stiles a look as if she knew it was his fault already, like she was used to Stiles being involved in accidents and responsible for the injuries of others. Derek decided to be polite and he patted Stiles' shoulder, "But don't worry about it. Stiles is always welcome back."

He wasn't looking at Stiles but he knew he must've been smiling because Claudia was grinning at him. "He apologized, right?"

"Too many apologies, maybe," Scott laughs.

Claudia ruffled Stiles' hair, "Better than nothing. Thank you, Derek. Tell your mom I say hi. I'll see you soon, Scott." 

"See you, Mrs. Stilinski!" Scott gave a little wave as her and Stiles said their goodbyes and head to their car.

After Derek closes the door he turned to Scott. "Mrs. Stilinski? The kid's name is _Stiles Stilinski_?" 

"Stiles isn't his real name. Just his nickname. I don't know his actual name," Scott said, staring off into the distance. "His name could be something completely weird and I wouldn't know."

"Oh, and _Stiles Stilinski_ isn't weird?" 

Scott looked back at Derek, actually appearing a bit insulted. "You were nicer before you went to Hogwarts." 

"Yea. Well, maybe I made some actual normal friends who actually know how to play quidditch and how to get good grades," Derek snapped. 

Scott frowned, his eyes began to water. "Leave him alone. His dad isn't a wizard, only his mom. His dad doesn't even know about the wizard world so he can't practice at home."

"How is he supposed to go to Hogwarts then?" 

Scott wiped his eyes, "I don't know!" He had to look away from Derek. "His mom helped fight in the battle of Hogwarts, you know? So she's cool. Stiles is cool, too."

"Yea. And are dad fought there too. But he left us, Scott. He didn't care about us. At least our mom accepts us for who we are." 

"Stop it," Scott pouted.

"Go to his house next time I'm in town," Derek growled before running up the stairs to his bedroom, leaving Scott alone with wet cheeks. Scott couldn't go to his mom, because then Derek would just tease him for being a tattle tale, so Scott just sat on the couch and read his comic book.

* * *

***

Derek spent the days at home watching Doctor Who and avoiding homework. Albus and Elsa each sent him a letter. Elsa's was just a nice Christmas greeting, and he sent one back with SJ, the very next day. Albus didn't even mention Christmas, but some new witch who moved in next to him who he was planning to kiss on new year's eve. Derek was always jealous that Albus lived in a wizards neighbourhood. He was also jealous of his big family that he always got to have Christmas dinner with. Usually their uncle Peter would come into town, and so would his cousin Cora. But now that his dad was gone, it was just Derek, Scott, and their mom. Derek couldn't decide if it was a fortunate or unfortunate happenstance when his mom had invited the Stilinskis to dinner. He really didn't want to see Stiles, but he also didn't want to spend the night listening to his mom's attempts at pretending that everything was fine without their dad. Derek spent Christmas day ignoring Scott, who got lots of comic books and marvel films. Derek helped his mom cook. She was dressed in a festive red sweater with reindeers on the sleeves. Scott was wearing a similar sweater, but it was less flashy. Derek was proud of being the only normal one in the home, wearing his simple black t-shirt. The Stilinskis came over around 6:00. Derek opened the door to find Stiles standing in front of his parents, holding three small presents, with a great big grin plastered on his face. Derek couldn't help but smile a little as he invited them inside. He didn't try to push away Claudia's hug, he embraced her ginger bread scent, and even shook hands with Mr. Stilinski, who he had never met before. Scott soon whisked Stiles away to go hang out up in his bedroom, and Derek left to be alone in the living room while the adults conversed in the kitchen. He had to keep SJ up in his bedroom because Mr. Stilinski would definitely question the presence of an owl, considering he had no idea about the wizard world. Derek felt bad, he should have let SJ stay at Hogwarts, but he liked bringing her to London for his own selfish reason; he liked having a piece of his real home, Hogwarts, with him.

Later, at the dinner table, Derek kept out of most conversations, not caring about some kid in Claudia's class, or the red haired girl that Stiles loved. He just wanted to eat, then maybe call Elsa. She had given him the number for her family's house phone, but he hadn't gotten the chance to use it yet.

"Derek, how's the football team at school?" Claudia asked. 

Giving his mom a look, Derek wondered what they've told Mr. Stilinski about Derek. They probably made up some insane story about him going to a boarding school in France, where he'd play football and make out with girls, such as Elsa, which would be good. Or worse, they had told him that Derek lived with his Dad. "It's good." Melissa kicked Derek's leg lightly under the table, which caused him to roll his eyes. "It's great, actually. It's my first year on my school's team, and that goes the same for one of my best friends, so we get to spend lots of time together, which is awesome." 

Claudia smiled at the idea. Melissa told him that when Claudia was in Hogwarts, she even made the acquaintance of his dad. Yet, Claudia was a nice soul, so it didn't surprise Derek when he was told that they hadn't been close friends, or friends at all. In her eyes, Derek could see how she longed to go back to Hogwarts; how she longed to talk to her husband about all things magic. 

"There's a photo of you in one of the halls," Derek told Claudia, trying to make her feel special. 

Mr. Stilinski gave Derek a questioning look, "You go to school all the way in California? I thought you went to an all boys boarding school?" 

Derek took one for the team, telling Mr. Stilinski the one thing he didn't want to say, "Yea. I live with my dad. He moved back to California and I decided to stay with him." 

"Dad went to California?" Scott asked, looking at Derek with sad eyes. In Scott's mind, their dad was only out of town, staying with his grandparents. Everyone's eyes, except Mr. Stilinski's, went to Scott, with pity. 

"Scott, just eat your turkey," Melissa ordered quietly.

Luckily, Stiles saved them from the awkwardness and spoke up for the first time that night. "Hey Scott, guess what? Last night, me and my dad were playing monopoly and I reached a new record for time spent in jail."

"How many times did you go to jail?"

"Twenty four!" 

Derek glanced over at Stiles. "How do you manage that?" 

Stiles simply winked. "Magic."

 


	3. New Year's Eve

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Claudia Stilinski was a blissful woman, despite everything that had ever gone wrong in her life. Claudia had laugh lines, and her brown eyeliner was always a little bit smudged, which was hard not to notice. Derek had known her for a week then; he hated her son and he just wanted the holidays to be over, but on new year's eve, she sat down next to Derek, making him rethink a few things.

The Stilinski's had invited the Hall's out for a New Year's party at a their house; Derek decided to come along because he hated being alone. Lots of people ended up showing up at the house, none of them who Derek knew. The party consisted of mostly adults, but some kids around Scott's age. There was no one Derek could talk to, so he stuck around, grabbed some alcohol, disguised it with some coke, and wandered the home. Most of the adults had gone outside on the back porch, or stayed in the living room, while the kids played in the basements so Derek went upstairs.   
The house wasn't big at all so it wasn't hard to figure out which room was Stiles' room. He had a wizard's hat, which looked like it had been bought from a Halloween store, hanging from the end of his unmade, navy blue bed. Slightly buzzed, Derek took a seat, picking up the hat, then placing it on his head. Hat on, he looked around, feeling only a bit stupid and pathetic while he hummed Hogwarts' school song. That's when he noticed the window.   
It was slightly open, giving the room a chill which he had ignored before. He walked over to it, opening it fully. Once he saw the roof, which was not too steep, he climbed up onto Stiles' night table, then climbed out the window, hat still on head and drink still in hand. It was nearly midnight, and he didn't want to start off the new year in a basement with a bunch of kids, especially Stiles. Well, he was on Stiles' roof and wearing Stiles' hat all alone on a rooftop, but it was still sort of better. He checked his watch. Four minutes. He had four minutes left of the year, and he didn't want it to end.  
While he was sipping from his drink, he heard someone open the door back inside the bedroom. Heart rapidly beating, Derek stopped breathing. He prayed that it wasn't Stiles, because the hat and the fact that he was in his room in the first place would be a weird thing to explain, especially if Derek was getting a bit tipsy. Luckily it wasn't Stiles, but Claudia.   
"Derek?" She said, poking around the room for a little bit before just noticing him outside the window. "What are you doing?" She walked over to the window, not looking mad at all, just a little sad, actually. "You shouldn't be out here all alone."  
Derek coughed, realising she was climbing out to sit next to him. He moved his cup far from her, "Um. I'm alright. I found this hat."  
She smiled, letting her feet hang down off the roof. "No one deserves to be alone on New Year's eve. Come downstairs. Be with your family."  
"It's just another day. It's not a big deal," He mumbled, looking in the opposite direction. He didn't want to be with Scott nor his mom, because it just reminded him of what was missing. His dad.   
"Derek," Claudia sighed, "are you alright?" She sensed the uneasiness in his tone.  
"It's going to be a whole new year in about three minutes. It's like someone clicked a refresh button, and everything that had happened is old news."  
Claudia pressed her lips together in a flat line. "Derek, what's this about?"  
He wiped his eyes. He hadn't realized his eyes had been watering. They might've started watering when he got outside and hit the cool air, or maybe even just when sitting on Stiles' bed, he didn't know. He picked up his cup, trying to stand and leave. "It's nothing." But Claudia grabbed his arm, sitting him back down and giving him the same look that his own mom always gave him. The look that says, talk. "My dad left us." She nodded, not saying anything to let him continue speaking, which he admitted he probably should do. "He left last July, and at first I thought he'd come home in a week. But then a week turned into a month, and a month into the whole summer. He didn't come home when I went back to Hogwarts, or when Scott started quidditch. He hasn't returned or even called. I guess, I still kind of hoped he would, you know?" Claudia took Derek's hand in hers when his voice cracks, and for once he didn't feel like shrugging it off, because he somehow felt like Claudia actually cared. "And after that clock hits midnight... It'll be a whole new year and I don't have a dad."  
She looked at her own watch. "We have a minute left. You have a minute to hold onto him. But once the new year hits, I need you to let it go, okay?"  
"What?" Derek looked at her like she's insane. "You should just go back downstairs. Be with your husband."  
"I will be spending every year for the rest of my life with him, so he can let me go just this once, because I'm not letting you be alone. I'm not letting you start off the year alone. You may not have a dad, but you have me."  
Derek wiped his eyes again. "You don't even know me."  
The people downstairs start counting down from ten, then. Claudia kept holding onto Derek's hands. "Quick, say it."  
8... 7...  
"Say what?" He mumbled quickly.   
"How you feel about your dad."   
6... 5...  
He took only a moment, "I hate him. I hate him so much." 4... "My mom is good. She didn't deserve someone as shitty as him. Excuse my language." 3... "But Scott is a good kid like she is, and he's going to grow up even better than if he wasn't around. Because we are an even better family without him." 2... 1... "And I have to let him go."  
All the clocks struck midnight; Claudia and Derek saw fireworks go off in the distance, and they heard the cheers from everyone downstairs. They kept quiet for a while themselves, while everyone hollered. Derek didn't want to say anything, and neither did Claudia, for once. A knock at the window was what brought them back to their senses after watching the world be blissful for a few moments.   
"Mom? Derek?" Stiles was at the window, his head pocking out, wearing his usual crooked grin. "Derek, why are you wearing my hat?"  
"Happy new year, baby," Claudia smiled, ignoring his comment; letting go of Derek's hand, which surprisingly disappointed him; and she shifted towards her son to give him a hug and plant a kiss on his forehead.  
Stiles hugged her back, "Happy new year, mom. And seriously, why are you guys up here?" He glances at Derek, but he was mostly talking to his mom.  
Claudia couldn't find the right answer, so she changed the subject, moving towards the window. "I should probably go kiss my husband. Don't stay up here too long, you two."  
Derek didn't let out a yes, he just nodded as Claudia climbed inside, and soon she's gone, as if nothing had happened. Stiles sat with his feet hanging off the roof, just as Claudia had done before. Except, he annoyingly swung his legs back and forth, hitting the side of the house . "Happy new year, Derek," Stiles remembered to say.   
"Yea. You too." Derek didn't look at him, and tries to ignore all the annoying natural noises Stiles makes. How could one kid be so noisy?  
"Listen, Derek," Stiles said, after a few awkward seconds of silence. "I'm sorry I'm so irritating sometimes." It was as if he had read his mind. "I don't mean to be. I don't want you to hate me."  
Stiles' voice sounded a bit sad; Derek couldn't help but feel quite bad, so he said, "I don't hate you, Stiles." Which was mostly a lie, but he didn't need to know. "You're just not my favourite kid."  
Stiles looked at him nervously, biting his bottom lip. "You don't hate me?"  
"No." He was still lying.   
"So, if this year my resolution was to be less annoying, do you think we could be friends?"   
Derek looked at him then, completely dumbfounded. "Friends?"  
"Yea. Like, we could hang out and watch Doctor Who when you visit during the summer. And you might even wave to me sometimes when I'm in Hogwarts so I'll feel sort of cool. You know, if you want to, that is."  
Derek breathed in deeply. The air was cold, and he was wearing a sweater. Stiles was only wearing a light tee-shirt; Derek could see the goose-bumps on Stiles' arms. "Whatever. Yea. Sure."  
Stiles beamed at Derek for a moment, then quickly contained himself. "Cool. Yea. Whatever."


	4. Doctor Who and The Zoo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Derek returns home again, for summer holidays. Him and Stiles bond over Doctor Who until Elsa comes for a visit.

Derek eventually went home to Hogwarts, which was a relief. He loved his family but he wasn't sure how long he could put up with Scott's lack of common sense and his mom constantly pretending everything was okay -but he still gave her credit for trying. He missed magic, and used it as much as he could, the second he set foot back in the school. He spent the rest of the school year like any normal wizard would. He would sneak out to the forbidden forest with Albus, practice new charms with Elsa, and study for his exams. The year was easy, but he never got anywhere romantic with Elsa. He still had time, he figured.  
Once the summer arrived -and it arrived too soon -everyone boarded the train to go home. And that's when he asked Elsa, spare of the moment, if she wanted to come visit his house for a week during the vacation. His mom had suggested he invited a friend out in one of her previous letters, so he took the offer up with Elsa. His mom, Melissa, probably hadn't pictured him inviting a female over, but it was too late then, because Elsa had said yes.  
***  
After being picked up by his mom at the train station, who embarrassingly kissed his face too many times in front of Albus, he was driven home. Derek informed Melissa about Elsa, and she surprisingly smiled like it was a good idea. She had thought Derek was a loner the whole time.  
Another big surprise when Derek got home, was that there was not only one eight year old boy sitting on the couch, but two. Stiles was sitting next to Scott, watching television.  
Stiles was surprisingly the first one who noticed Derek, but he didn't say anything. "Boys, we're home!" Melissa called out, two seconds after Stiles had looked away, to continue watching TV.  
Scott instantly jumped from the couch, attacking Derek with a hug. Everyone still looked the same since they'd last seen each other, but Derek had admitted that Scott grew at least an inch. "Welcome home," Scott muttered into Derek's chest.  
Derek continued with their usual procedure and pulled out a bag of sweets from the train ride, and Scott's eyes lit up. He snatched them and ran back to the couch with Stiles. "Hi Stiles," Derek waved awkwardly. He never waved to people. Derek found it odd how Stiles was almost ignoring him.  
"Hi," Stiles nodded his head at him, but didn't look at him.  
***  
"So, Scott," Derek said later that day, once he's settled in again and sitting on the couch with the two boys, "how's school?"  
"Good," Scott said with no enthusiasm. Stiles had still been ignoring Derek. It was not normal behaviour for him. His personality couldn't have suddenly changed so drastically within the span of a few months.  
"Stiles?" Derek asked. "How's school going for you?"  
"It's good," Stiles replied calmly. Derek was determined to get him talking.  
"Did you tell your dad that you're a wizard?"  
"No." Stiles looked at his hands. Derek knew then that it was the wrong question to ask so he quickly said something else.  
"Hey, Scott, has mom told you how I'm doing bad in potions class?"  
"No?" Scott didn't take his eyes off of the television, but Stiles sort of glanced over.  
"Well, I'm doing really bad in potions class. As in, Albus and I set a fire during the last week of classes. And during my examination, I accidentally blew up my brew, and it got all over the professor so he had to go to the hospital wing."  
Stiles cracked a smile, which caused Derek to smile a bit as well. "What the hell, Derek?" Scott finally looked at him. "Did you get in trouble?"  
"No. I explained that it was an honest mistake. But now, the professor hates me."  
Scott turned his head back to the television, "Alright. Does mom know?"  
"No. Don't tell her," Derek panicked. He'd forgotten that his mom had absolutely no idea about the incident. She'd probably make him write up an apology letter or something, which is absolutely not what he wanted to do.  
"Whatever," Scott grinned. His focus quickly goes back to the television show, and he forgets everything Derek had mentioned. But Stiles still remained too quiet and it actually started to irritate Derek more than when Stiles is just being Stiles. "Hey," Scott said, looking at his friend, "do you want some food? I'm as hungry as a wolf."  
"Sure," Stiles says. "I mean, uh, yes, please."  
Scott gives Stiles a look of confusion. "Okay? You're very welcome, sir. I'll be right back.|  
Scott skipped away into the other room to fetch them some food, not even bothering to offer Derek some.  
Derek took this as an opportunity to talk to Stiles, alone. "Have you been watching the new series of Doctor Who?"  
"Yea," he nodded. Derek saw his eyes light up. "The new doctor is hilarious."  
"Really? We don't have television or internet connection at school yet, so I haven't gotten the chance to catch up."  
Stiles looked at Derek as if Derek were a three legged dog in the pound. "You... You haven't caught up on the season?"  
"Nope."  
"Oh my god. I have to get you watching it!" Stiles' eyes widened and he stood up, running over to the Hall's home computer at the other end of the living room. "The new companion's name is Rose. She's totally cool and brave. Her mom's kind of a weirdo, though. And the first episode was so weird, but it's as awesome as ever." Stiles had taken a seat at the computer desk, his leg bouncing up and down excitedly. "Also, the new doctor sort of has this funny sass. I like him a lot."  
Derek smiled at how he'd finally gotten Stiles to talk. He kept quiet as the kid blabbered about the show. Pulling up a chair behind Stiles, Derek sat and waiting for the new episode to load that Stiles had found a link to very quickly, online.  
The episode eventually loaded, so they began to watch. Stiles did not stop with his blabbering, and Derek did not stop with his listening. They continued like that until Scott came back in the room, holding a plate of nachos.  
"Seriously?" Scott whined. "I can't leave the two of you alone, ever again! I'm going to eat these by myself."  
Stiles looked as if he was ashamed of something, but not ashamed of Scott catching them. Derek couldn't figure it out. "Derek can watch it later," Stiles said, turning the desktop screen off and returning to the couch. Derek was frustrated again; Stiles pretended as if nothing had happened, and he returned to being silent, not looking at Derek.  
Derek opened his mouth to ask if Stiles wanted to join him the next day to help him catch up on the season, but then the doorbell rang. Derek mentally thanked the doorbell, realizing that inviting Stiles over to hang out with him might've been a weird idea, after all. Quickly, Derek went to go answer the door, where he found Claudia standing. He had smiled instantly, and didn't really think about what he was doing when he gave her a hug.  
Claudia hugged him back; her soothing hand rubbing his back, with her other hand resting on the back of his neck. "Derek, it's good to see you. I didn't know that you were back already?"  
He nodded, pulling away from her arms. "I've just gotten back. How've you been?"  
She smiled, her eyes crinkling, "I've been wonderful, thank you." Before she could ask how he'd been, Stiles came into the room, Scott following behind him, holding his nachos.  
"Hi Mrs. Stilinski," Scott smiled. "Would you like some nachos?"  
"Wow, you'll let my mom have nachos, but not me? Wow, Scott, I thought we had something special?" Stiles scoffed, jokingly.  
Scott playfully rolled his eyes, handing Stiles the plate of nachos, which he takes happily after Claudia kindly declines them.  
"Stiles didn't hit you with anything this time, did he?" Claudia asked, only half jokingly, examining Derek's face.  
"No, mom," Stiles glared at her. "I was cool."  
"You were "cool"?" Derek looked at Stiles, raising an eyebrow. "Define "cool", because I didn't think squealing about Doctor Who was necessarily considered "cool"?"  
Stiles glared at Derek then, "It's not necessarily considered un-cool!"  
Claudia just laughed at the two of them, while Scott looked as if he didn't know them. "Stiles, I'm sorry, but we really have to go. You can come see Scott and Derek sometime soon, again," Claudia told Stiles.  
"Alright, see you, Scott," Stiles said, giving Scott one of their weird brotherly hugs, purposely sticking a nacho to the back of his shirt, which Scott luckily doesn't realize. Stiles smirks and then turns to Derek, debating whether he should do it or not, but then makes his decision and gives Derek a hug. Being six years older than him, Derek was quite taller, so Stiles wrapped his little arms around his waist, his face squishing against his chest.  
Derek awkwardly patted his back, "I'll see you soon, Stiles."  
***  
The first week of Derek's holiday was alright. Stiles ended up coming over almost every day, even one day when Scott was busy with a doctor's appointment. Stiles joined Derek as he caught up on his Doctor Who episodes. Derek found himself having a crush on Rose, after two episodes, while Stiles had a crush on The Doctor. Stiles admitted that on the first day back, he'd been acting odd because his new year's resolution was to be "less annoying" around Derek, which Derek had apparently forgotten. Stiles realized that by trying to act normal and "less annoying" he'd just annoyed Derek even more, so they agreed that Stiles could just be himself, and he'd have to face the fact that he was just a naturally irritating kid that Derek would have to get used to.  
Elsa had sent Derek a letter, announcing that her parents were perfectly alright with her spending a week in the Hall household, and that she'd be arriving that Saturday. Derek read over the letter, out loud to his mom, smiling like an idiot at how Elsa had written, "I miss you, Derek! I'm so excited to come spend time with you."  
Once Saturday had finally came, Derek went with his mom to go pick Elsa up from the train station. She walked onto the platform, wearing just normal denim jeans and a red t-shirt, her hair braided as usual, but Derek thought she looked like an angel. She smiled, her cheeks becoming pink, the moment she saw him. He couldn't help it as he left his mom's side to go hug Elsa.  
"It's so weird seeing you without Gryffindor colours on," she giggled. "It's so good to see you."  
"It's only been a week," he remarked.  
She shrugged, "But, still..."  
Melissa approached them with a huge smile across her face. "So you're Elsa. It's good to finally put a face to the name. Derek talks about you all the time --well, when he's not talking about Doctor Who." Elsa lets Melissa give her a hug.  
"It's so nice to meet you," Elsa smiles politely. "Thank you for letting me stay with your family."  
"It's okay. It's only the three of us --well, Stiles is always there as well --so we always love company."  
Elsa made a face at Derek, "Stiles? Isn't that the kid who you told me about?" Derek could only recall mentioning Stiles once, and that was to say how annoying he was. But now that the relationship was better between the two of them, Derek felt the need to defend Stiles.  
"He's a good kid," Derek said. "He got better. You'll like him." Derek knew that Elsa most likely would find Stiles just as annoying as he had when he first met him, so he made a mental note to keep her away from him as much as possible.  
***  
Elsa fit right into the Hall household. Scott adored her almost as much as Derek did, especially once she told him stories about her little sister who was the same age as Scott. She lived with an all wizard family in an all wizard neighbourhood, which Scott was jealous about. Her and Derek did some of their holiday homework together, she had helped Melissa cook dinner a few times, and she also began to try and teach Derek French. She was beautiful and intelligent, everyone loved having her around, until Stiles came over on her third day visiting.  
Claudia was the one who dropped off Stiles. Derek, as usual, was the one to answer the door. Just as he was twisting open the door knob, he realized that no one had mentioned to Stiles that Elsa hd come to visit.  
"Derek!" Claudia beamed once he had opened the door. She smiled at him for a moment until her eyes traveled behind him. He turned to see Elsa standing in the doorway to the kitchen. "Hello, dear."  
"Claudia, this is my friend Elsa from Hogwarts," Derek smiled, waving Elsa over.  
"Hi," Elsa smiled but then was a bit startled when Claudia gave her a hug.  
"Elsa, this is Stiles," Derek said, looking at Stiles. Stiles didn't make eye contact with Elsa, he just stared at Derek with an angry expression. "Are you okay?" Derek whispered to him.  
Stiles just shook his head and Elsa said hello to him. "Yeah. Hi," Stiles muttered before running off to find Scott.  
"Well, alright," Claudia watched her son go. "Well, I have to get going. Tell your mom I said hello."  
Derek smiled and Claudia gave him a hug. "I'll see you soon."  
"See you, Derek," Claudia said before stepping down the steps of their front porch. Derek closed the door and turned to Elsa who had her arms crossed in front of her chest. She looked un-amused.  
"What?" Derek asked her.  
"That Claudia lady seems kind of odd. Is she a squib or something?"  
Derek's jaw dropped a touch. He had to defend Claudia. "She's not. She's wonderful. She's a regular school teacher now, but she once fought in the battle of Hogwarts."  
Elsa played with her braid. "Still, she's sort of weird."  
Derek didn't understand what she meant. He felt hurt; Claudia was important to him, he never saw anything wrong with her. But instead of finding a way to defend her, Derek just walked away.  
Stiles and Scott were running around the living room, holding the remote controls as if they were wands, and pretending to shoot spells at each other. Derek knew that Stiles had read a bunch of spell books and learned the names and motions from that along with his mother. Stiles must've taught a few to Scott, as well. He sat down on the coach, in the middle of all the chaos, and Elsa never came into the room.  
Melissa was the one who entered the room instead. "Kids, get your coats on, we're doing something fun for once." She ignored the fact that Stiles was playing dead on the living room floor while Scott laughed manically. "Kids are weird," Derek thought to himself.  
"What's your idea, Melissa?" Elsa asked, poking her head in. Elsa looked pretty intrigued.  
"We are going to the zoo."  
"That sounds like a great idea!" Elsa marvelled, giving Derek a quick glance. "I'll go put on my shoes."  
"Thank you for the enthusiasm," Melissa told her and looked back at her boys. "Get your stuff on as well, and meet me in the car."  
Once she left the room, Stiles dramatically pretended to come back to life. He stuck his arms out in front of him, making weird groaning sounds and Derek quickly got that he was pretending to be a zombie. Scott kicked his thigh, "Be a human, you dummy. Zombies aren't allowed in the zoo, they'd scare the animals." That caused Stiles to break character and laugh a little, rolling over on the floor a couple times before standing up.  
Derek rolled his eyes at them, going to put his shoes and coat on by the front door where Elsa was. He wasn't angry at her, or even annoyed anymore once he saw how cute she looked in her red rain coat. He had to take a double take of her once he headed to the door. "You look nice," she told him as she zipped his coat up for him, even though he didn't exactly want it to be zipped up. "Why don't you wear this jacket at school?"  
"Oh, it's new," he said, praying that he wasn't blushing. Even if he was blushing, he didn't think that she'd exactly notice because she looked nervous about something. "Ready to go?" he asked and she nodded.  
***  
Elsa was acting strange, and Derek couldn't figure out why. She had kept staring at him with admiration when he told her "fun facts" about the armadillos. He didn't get why she admired that; they were just armadillos and he hadn't exactly put the "fun" in "fun facts." She did the same thing when he made a Doctor Who reference in the middle of conversation, and she did it again when they were looking at the lions and he had brought up Gryffindor. Not only was it the out of place looks, but she kept stumbling on her words whenever she went to speak to him. Her voice was usually steady and clear, but now she was a mess, and he found it cute.  
It was when they were looking at the snakes that he started understanding. She was holding onto the railing, starting blankly at the snake as Derek spoke.  
"Ah, the Black Rat Snake," Derek said. "They use these around farms sometimes because they help control pest population. They aren't a threat to humans though."  
"Cool," Elsa said, sounding nervous as she had all day. Derek hadn't concidered what he had said to be "cool" but he went with it. "Derek, I need to tell you something."  
"Shoot," he said, turning to her and leaning against the rail.  
"I um... I think I like you." She looked at him for approval. He wasn't really giving her anything though, he was mostly frozen. "Well, I don't think that. I know that."  
"You like me?" he repeated, just in case he had heard wrong.  
"Yea," he saw her grip harder onto the railing. "I guess I've liked you for a while now, but I shook it off. But when I arrived at your house, the feeling kept rushing back."  
"Oh my god," he muttered under his breath.  
"I'm sorry, maybe I shouldn't have-" she started apologizing but he cut her off by pressing his lips to hers. She seemed surprised at first, but eventually got into it. For both of them, this was their first kiss with anyone. It wasn't entirely special, it was just a quick little kiss, but Derek felt pretty happy about it.  
He opened his mouth to tell her how he had felt the same way for so long, but he was interrupted by a sudden sound of shattering glass. Everyone in the room looked over to see that one of the windows was broken --luckily it was just a window looking out the building, and not one of the ones shielding in one of the snakes --and Stiles was standing right in front of it. Derek and Elsa realized they had held onto each other's hands, and Derek noticed that Stiles was looking directly at them, his eyes full of anger.


	5. Passing Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Derek goes back for his fourth year at Hogwarts. Time passes, and it's finally time for Scott and Stiles to go to Hogwarts, but before they can leave, Mr. Stilinski needs to be informed about the wizarding world

For the rest of the week, Stiles had avoided Derek for still unknown reasons, but Derek didn't care because he was dating Elsa. The Elsa Argent that he had had a crush on since first year. The same girl who sat with him and Albus on the train every year; the same girl who had helped him pass potions and brought him a cupcake on his birthday in August. He was now allowed to kiss that girl any time he wanted, because she was his girlfriend, which he still couldn't believe. He didn't kiss her infront of his mom until they were saying their goodbyes at the train station; he just couldn't hold it back, knowing that he wouldn't be able to see her until the school year started again. As it happened, Melissa watched from the sidelines, awkardly, and Elsa blushed too much afterwords. Scott had tagged along to see her off, so he was the one who broke the silence afterwords.

"When did this happen?" asked Scott, insanely surprised. Scott hadn't seen them kiss at the zoo, and Derek guessed that Stiles never got around to mentioning it.

Derek was going to answer, but Elsa completely acted as if nothing had happened. "Thank you for having me, Melissa. It was such a lovely week."

Melissa's eyes quickly flickered to Derek. "Yes. We loved having you. Right, Scott?"

"Yea..." Scott smiled, though his eyes were still a bit frightened.

Melissa gave Elsa a hug before Elsa had to board the train. Derek was about to give her another hug as well, but Elsa said goodbye and rolled her suitcase away. Scott, Derek, and Melissa, waved goodbye and watched the train go off. Once it was leaving, Melissa shot Derek a glare.

"What?" he asked, though he was smiling because he knew exactly what it was about.

"You are thirteen. No kissing." Melissa said, dead serious.

"Mom, I'm fourteen," Derek frowned.

She rolled her eyes, "Whatever. But do I need to have the talk with you?"

"No!" Derek gulped. "What's "the talk"?"

Scott asked, tugging at Melissa's sleeve. "Can you have the talk with me?"

Melissa rolled her eyes again. "No, Scott. Let's just get home."

***

For Stiles, it was such a relief that Elsa was gone, but for Derek it was hard. Returning to just sending each other letters every other day was not enough for him. Luckily, because Stiles was present in his life again, he gave Derek a distraction: Doctor Who. It was going well for the two of them, sitting back and watching the adventures of the mad man in the blue box. Derek had even invited over Albus a couple times that summer, who, thanks to Stiles, found himself obsessed with the show. It was a good summer. Sending letters to Elsa; spending time with Albus and Stiles; the regular arguments with Scott. Derek couldn't help but feel a bit sad when he had to say goodbye to everyone at the train station.

"Platform nine and three quarters," Stiles gasped at the stone right in front of him, "is just right through here." Stiles had asked --begged --to come along to say goodbye to Derek. Melissa, of course, thought that would be a wonderful idea, and so Claudia came along as well. Stiles was being an excited idiot the whole car ride to the station; he hadn't been exposed to much magic in his life. Derek was worried by how Stiles would react when he actually saw the Hogwarts express; Stiles would usually just get excited when Derek mentioned Hogwarts. Everyone watched Stiles as he strangely stroked the bricked wall. "Wow," Stiles grinned, turning to Derek.

"Are you ready?" Scott asked Stiles, holding back his smile at how silly Stiles was acting.

Stiles took a deep breath in, going back to stand by Derek and his luggage carrosil. "Give me a moment."

Derek rolled his eyes, taking off in a run towards the wall, quickly dissapearing behind it, not wanting to wait for Stiles to get himself together. He waited on the other side, peering around to see many familiar faces saying their goodbyes to their families. Even Dalton Whittemore was there, with his dad and what looked like a younger brother, around the same age as Scott. Claudia and Melissa came through the wall together, holding hands, right after Derek got through. Claudia looked purely delighted as she stared up at the Hogwarts Express.

"Wow," she sighed heavily, taking it all in and putting an arm around Derek. "It's been a long time since I was here last."

Derek flickered his eyes to her. He loved the way she smiled, crookedly and cheerful, just like her son. "I'll write to you," he decided. Stiles wasn't the only one that had spent quite a bit of time over at the Hall household, Claudia had as well. Sure, she enjoyed making fun Derek's naturally grumpy face, but so did the rest of his family. Derek felt himself trying to mimick her smile, and he realized that she was a part of his family, as well, along with Stiles.

Claudia wiped her watery eyes, her eyeliner smudging a touch. "That'd be lovely, dear," she responded. "Give me all of your updates on quidditch and that Elsa girl."

"Of course. And I'll have to send some to Stiles occasionally, I suppose," He added before realize that Scott and Stiles still hadn't come through the wall. "Um. Speaking of Stiles and Scott..." Melissa and Claudia shot their heads up, their motherly instincts kicking in as worry spread all over their faces.

"Oh my god," Melissa groaned, about to run through the wall again. "These kids will be the end of me. I can't leave my son alone for two seconds-"

Before she could act, Stiles and Scott rushed through the door, looking perfectly in good health. Scott quickly nudged Stiles about something before going to hug his brother.

"What took you so long?" Derek asked, even though he hadn't been worried at all. Somehow, his brother always ended up fine and alive --he had even fallen out of a tree a few years before.

"Well, Stiles needed a moment," Scott rolled his eyes. Derek rolled his eyes as well and so did Melissa; eye rolling was something that ran in their family, as you see. Derek casted a glance at Stiles, who was dramatically holding his hand to his heart while gazing at the train.

"Stiles," Melissa asked, placing a hand on his shoulder, "are you going to be alright?"

"My god, it's beautiful," Stiles chimed. "I must go on it! I must venture to Hogwarts, right this moment!"

"You have to wait a couple years, bud," Melissa laughed. "Don't worry, it will happen sooner than you think. Also, consider the fact that you're allowed to even go to Hogwarts at all, compared to people like me."

"You poor soul," Stiles gasped at her as if she was a homeless puppy.

"Ah, don't worry. I've got enough magic in my life," She said truthfully, taking a look at Scott still clinging onto Derek. Derek was angrily trying to shake Scott off of him. Stiles had finally taken his eyes off the train. He decided to glance around at the wizarding families surrounding him, even seeing Albus in the distance saying goodbye to his father. Stiles had only seen Harry Potter in photos from when Harry was young, but with his signature glasses, he was still easily recognizable. Stiles smiled to himself, not wanting to let go of the simple magical moment, but suddenly his eyes landed on another familiar face, causing that smile to dissapear, almost instantly. "Stiles, what is it?" Claudia asked, noticing her son's sudden grief.

"Is that Jackson?" He gulped, looking at Scott in with alarm.

Scott had to look around quickly before seeing what Stiles had seen. "Hey. It is. I didn't know he was a wizard!"

"Jackson?" Derek asked, concerned of how Stiles was behaving. "Who's that?" Scott pointed over to where Dalton was standing with his family. The younger boy that Derek was looking at earlier must've been Jackson. "Dalton Whittemore's brother?"

"You know his brother?" Stiles asked Derek, his eyes wider than usual. "What house is he in? Slytherin, I bet."

"No? Dalton is in Ravenclaw, actually. I've talked to him only once, I think. He's very nice. And if you were implying that the Slytherins were mean, that's untrue. They're really nice." Derek watched as Stiles' face went from scared to shocked. Stiles moved behind his mom, hiding his face in her back. "What is it?" Derek asked, still unsure about the situation.

"Jackson is one of Stiles' bullies at school," Claudia gently informed him. "I taught him last year. The kid has a lot of potential, just not the best parents. It's a shame, really."

Derek quickly glanced at Scott. Scott didn't look sad about it, so Derek guessed that Jackson hadn't been bullying him, but he still felt bad for Stiles. "I can talk to his brother, if you'd like?" Derek offered, looking at Claudia but really speaking to Stiles.

"No, it's okay," Stiles mumbled from behind her.

"No, it's not okay." Derek furrowed his eyebrows. "You should feel safe when you come to Hogwarts. I won't let some kid ruin it for you."

Stiles peeked at Derek. He hadn't thought that Derek cared about him that much. But before he could say anything, the announcement was made for the students that still hadn't boarded, to do so.

Scott gripped onto Derek's sweater. "No! I won't let him go!"

"Scott, quit being so dramatic," Melissa said to her youngest son.

Derek laughed and wrapped his arms around Scott. "I'll send you letters, as always."

"Send one every week. And if you forget, even one week, I'll send in a howler. I don't know how to do that, but I will," Scott said, his face squished up on Derek's chest, making his words sound mushy.

Derek patted his back. "I'm sure you will."

Melissa had to sort of pry Scott off of Derek so that she could have an actual hug. "Please don't kiss too many girls. Focus on your studies."

"Yes, mom," he smiled into her hair.

"And don't blow anything up this year. That was a weird one to explain to Mr. Stilinski."

"I'll try my best."

She took a look at her son. "You're a good kid. I love you."

"I know. I love you too." She kissed his cheek and gave him one last tight hug before letting Claudia and Stiles get their go. Derek was used to only having his mom and Scott say goodbye to him at the platform. Even when their dad was around, he'd never come to wish him luck for the year. Having Claudia and Stiles around was a nice thing to add into their annual routine.

Claudia hugged him goodbye. He was going to miss her warmth. "I'll see you when Christmas comes around, okay?"

"I'll bring everyone sweets from Hogsmeade. Even the sheriff," he told her.

"That's very sweet of you," she smiled. He smiled back and she held his arm.

"I'll miss you," he admitted. "I'll miss you too, dear."

One of the people who was helping to get everyone on the train was calling at Derek, but he had one more thing to do before he left. "Stiles?" Stiles had his lips pressed together in a thin line, and he looked up at Derek like a dog. "Don't let Jackson get to you. You should never let anyone push you around. And don't worry about what will happen with him once you're in Hogwarts, because you have me. Okay?"

Stiles cracked a small smile and ran towards to hug Derek. His arms were longer than Scott's and he'd managed to reach them all the way around Derek's torso. "Thank you."

"And don't tell me any Doctor Who spoilers in any of your letters!" Derek warned him once they finally let go.

"I won't. But you should get going," Stiles told him, nodding towards the train. Derek picked up his back, taking a deep breath in, and he looked at his family that he was leaving behind for a few months. They all waved at him as he left, Scott even shouting another "I love you."

***

**Three Years Later**

****

Hogwarts. Oh, how wonderful it seemed. Stiles had imagined what Hogwarts would be like since he was a child. He dreamed of the enchanted ceiling of the great hall; the dark, forbidden forest; real quidditch games and spending more time with Derek. The acceptance letter was Stiles' everything. His life would finally be able to start and he could be who he was meant to be. But there was one problem, his dad.

                Claudia and Stiles sat on the couch of their small home, staring at the letter and waiting for his dad to come home from work.  They'd been planning how they were supposed to break the news to John that his family had "magical powers" and how Stiles was supposed to go study his powers off at a large --and quite dangerous --castle. Claudia wasn't too worried. Her husband loved her, and he loved his son. Stiles knew that as well, but he couldn't help but feel anxious about his reaction. Would he think that Stiles was a freak? Would he be angry at them for not telling him after all these years? Would he _leave?_   Stiles had no way of knowing, so he sat still, beside his mother, who had her wand out on the table. She never took out her wand, she believed that she didn't need magic to be happy and have a wonderful life.

                They heard the front door open. Claudia remained calm, holding her son's hand while he sat up tall and braced himself. He was already having troubles breathing, and his dad had only just walked in, with a smile on his face.

                "Stiles, good, you're here! Today at work we had to arrest this guy because- are you two okay?" John had taken off his coat, and put it up on the hanger before he had the chance to realize how serious his son and wife were acting. "Did something happen? Did nana die?"

                Claudia smiled, "Everything is fine, darling. It's just that Stiles received a letter today."

                Mr. Stilinski took a look at his son. "What kind of letter? You didn't get caught doing something stupid by some police officer, did you?" he teased, but his smile faded when Stiles wasn't laughing, like he normally would be. "Oh my god, you did, didn't you?"

                "No. No one is in trouble," Claudia gripped Stiles' hand tightly. "No one we know died, and no one that we know went to jail. He got an acceptance letter from a school."

                Stiles looked at the letter sitting on the table, next to his mom's wand. John's eyes followed, and he moved to grab the letter. "Hogwarts," he said, examining the opened envelope. "I've never heard of this place- of witchcraft and wizardry? This is neat; did Scott make you this or something? It looks pretty convincing."

                "Actually, that's what we need to talk to you about. You see, this is actually a real school. I went there myself," Claudia stood up to stand by John. "I've been hiding something from you, and now it's time that you knew."

                "Right, of course, you're a witch! And my son is a wizard," John joked, not realizing that it was actually true. He got a bit of a chuckle out of it before he saw that Stiles and Claudia were not laughing at all.

                Claudia picked up her wand, admiring it once she held it in her hands. "I grew up in California, just like you, yes, but I didn't go to school there at all, not even in America. I really did go to this Hogwarts place."

                "Oh, and is this supposed to be your magical wand?" John grinned, taking a look at it, but not removing it from her hands.

                "Actually, yes, it is my wand." Claudia could be very hilarious at times, coming up with silly jokes and adding sarcastic comments to everything, but in her stern moments, like then, she became very trustworthy. Something had told John that she was being serious. She smiled as she held her wand up as if she was about to cast a spell, but she didn't, just yet. "Both of my parents were what we call "muggles". We were still living in London around the time that I got my letter into Hogwarts, and realized that I, in fact, was a witch. The reason we moved across the world, was so they could attempt to rid me of my magic, in hopes that everything would just go away, but it didn't. Eventually they excepted me for who I was. Now, because I have this in my blood, it passed along to our son," she looked over at Stiles proudly. "I'm sorry I've never told you this, but I would like you to accept him for who he is, just like my parents had done for me."

                Stiles' hands were clammy; John looked at him, still unsure whether everything Claudia had just told him was a joke or not. "Wait, so what's a muggle?" John quickly asked Claudia.

                "It's just like a regular mortal being. People like you. But it is not a word that should be taken to offense. Just because you are a muggle doesn't mean your life can't be full of magical wonder."

                John stared at her wand again. "Prove this. I think I believe you, though I really don't think I want to."

                Claudia nodded turning and pointing her wand at the lamp on the side coffee table. She muttered a few words that neither John nor even Stiles understood, and suddenly the lamp was floating. John looked as if his life had just drastically changed forever, which it really had. Stiles was still unsure about how his dad felt, because John remained mostly frozen, not giving him anything.

                "It's a lot to take in, I know. But I can explain everything," Claudia quickly turned to her husband, holding his shoulders.

                "So, you're telling me that not only do you have special powers, but _Stiles_ also does? _My son?"_ John was blinking rapidly, not even glancing over at Stiles. Claudia just nodded and John proceeded to speak. "I knew the kid was always weird, but _this_?"

                Maybe Stiles was overreacting, but he suddenly couldn't breathe the air of that household anymore. He didn't even remember standing up or walking away, he was just suddenly out the door, grabbing his bicycle.

                "Stiles, wait!" John called from behind him, but he was already halfway down the street, peddling as fast as he could. He hadn't realized where he was going, or even taken a real breath until he found himself in front of the Hall's home. He threw his bike to the side, on the grass, running up to the door and knocking aggressively. He didn't hear anyone coming to the door, which is when he noticed that their car wasn't in the driveway --during the summer they would rarely keep the car in the garage. Stiles felt like sobbing, but he couldn't find the will to cry. He stopped knocking and leaned his forehead against the door, trying to get it together.

                He didn't hear the click of the doorknob, and was suddenly falling forward as someone had opened the door in front of him. Stiles ended up being caught by someone, so he luckily didn't face plant onto the floor. He looked up, to realize that it was Derek who had caught him in his arms.

                "Stiles, what are you doing here?" Derek's eyebrows furrowed with worry. "Scott is at a Doctor's appointment, but you can come in, if you want?"

                Stiles' lip quivered. "Yes, please."

                Derek was dying to ask what was wrong, but he decided to get Stiles secured and inside before it started to rain. He told Stiles to go into the kitchen, while he went outside to bring his bike into the garage so that it wouldn't get rained on. Derek walked back inside to see Stiles sitting at their kitchen table, taking in slow deep breaths. Letting him be, Derek went to the kettle to start making some tea, like he had been about to do before he heard the loud knocking on their front door. At first he had assumed the knocking was from Scott while their mom was still getting out of the car, which  was the usual case, but after it stopped and he hadn't heard his family walk in the house, he knew he had to answer it.

                "So, what happened?" Derek finally asked after setting a mug down next to Stiles, and taking a seat across from him.

                Stiles had eventually begun to breath normally again, but he still was very bummed out. "We told my dad that I was a wizard."

                "And he didn't take it very well, I presume?"  Derek took a sip of his own tea.

                "I don't even know, because I left before I could hear a real reaction. But he didn't look too happy. But then again, he didn't look very angry either, so maybe I'm just being crazy. But, Derek, I just couldn't breathe," Stiles said, staring at the table. "How am I supposed to go home after that?"

                "I know your dad, Stiles," Derek tried getting Stiles to look him in the eye, "and he's a good man. Your mum, next to mine, of course, is the best woman I have ever met. I doubt that he'd be angry or disappointed by you, and even if he was, your mum would knock some sense into him.

                Stiles sniffled. "Right, thank you."

                "When my mom gets home she'll have to call your parents, you know, to tell them that you're here and that you're safe, but I was just about to go watch some cartoons while I did my homework, if you'd like to join me?" Derek offered. Stiles, even after all this time, was still quite an irritating child, but that wasn't going to go away. Derek loved his company, and had become quite protective of him over the years as if Stiles was his own brother. He had helped Stiles overcome bullies at school, even though the teasing was still going on, Stiles was having a much better time at school.

                "I'll try not to bother you," Stiles said quietly as if he felt shy all of a sudden.

                Derek shook his head and stood up, "You won't bother me. Don't you think that I've gotten used to you by now? I met you when you were seven and now you're what, eleven, right?" Stiles nodded. "Of course you are. You're going to Hogwarts in a week, which is what everyone does when they're eleven."

                Stiles' eyes lit up as Hogwarts was mentioned. "Oh my god, I'm going to Hogwarts. I'm actually going."

                "Well, yea, did you think that you were a squib or something?" Derek grinned, walking over to the living room.

                Stiles followed. He was still shorter than Derek was, but he was getting there. Derek figured that Stiles would probably hit a growth spurt in third year and end up being Derek's height, or even taller with his strangely long limbs. "Hey, Derek, remember a few years ago when we first spent New Year's Eve together at my house? And you hated me then, so I asked you if that I finally got less annoying, you'd say "Hello" to me around Hogwarts every once in a while?"

                Derek was getting out his laptop and had to pause to look at Stiles. Since that night, Derek had spent every New Year's Eve at the Stilinski's house, and he had forgotten about that night. "Yes? Why are you bringing this up?"

                "Well, I was wondering if I could still take up that offer."

                Derek shook his head. "Of course I'm not going to say _hello_ to you in the hallways. The school is huge and there's a very small chance that I'll actually see you very often when heading class to class."

                "Oh. Okay, never mind," Stiles mumbled, looking away.

                "And if I did see you in the halls," Derek continued, taking a seat beside Stiles on the couch, "I would tease you about wearing your tie backwards." Stiles looked up at Derek, feeling much better to be with him than he felt back at home. "Stiles, you're my friend, do you seriously think that when we are finally in the same school together that I'm going to ignore you? Even if you don't get sorted into Gryffindor, you can still sit with me any time you like."

                Stiles crinkled his nose. "But you'd be with Elsa. I don't want to sit with her."

                Derek shoved Stiles with his elbow and grabbed the remote to turn on the television. Derek and Elsa had been together ever since they shared their first kiss at the zoo that one time. At the start of the summer, he had even gone to visit her family in France for a week. He learned that her younger sister, Allison, was going to Hogwarts in September, just like Scott was. Allison was lovely, just like Elsa, and they'd gotten along fairly well. Derek also learned that no one in Elsa's family actually looked alike. Her mom had short red hair, while her dad's was brown and greying. The only similarity was their blue eyes that the family shared --except for Allison. Derek had no idea who Elsa had gotten her blonde locks from, until he was introduced to her aunt, Kate. Kate was beautiful, Derek thought, but there was something about her that didn't seem right. She would act odd and shake the topic off whenever someone brought up her job or where she lived, so Derek didn't ask her many questions. Besides Kate, France was fun for Derek.

                "Why don't you like her?" Derek asked Stiles about Elsa. Elsa was always polite to Stiles when she visited. Sure, behind his back she would occasionally complain about how strange he was, but it wasn't too bad.

                Stiles shrugged. "I, uh, don't know. She doesn't seem to like me back very much. And don't even try denying that." Derek wasn't planning on denying it anyways. "And also, you act differently around her. You smile too much, and it's weird."

                Derek stared at Stiles with confusion. "I s _mile_ too much? You don't like Elsa because she makes me _smile_ too much?"

                "I didn't mean it like that. I mean, it's great that you're happy, but you always seem pretty oblivious to a lot of the rude things she says sometimes. It's like you have some sugar coated wall around you whenever you look at her. She's nice, sure, sometimes. But when she was here during Christmas break, for example, you completely missed it when she made a rude comment about Scott failing a math test right before the break. You know that Scott is insecure about those types of things, but you just kept smiling at her."

                "She did that? I'm sure she didn't mean to come across as rude-"

                Stiles cut him off. "She said that Scott should just stop trying because studying wasn't doing him any good."

                "What?"

                "He was busy that week and failed because he was too excited to see your stupid face later that afternoon. He's smart, he just always has other things on his mind," Stiles defended his friend flawlessly. "Elsa isn't allowed to make comments like that, especially when she hardly knows the kid."

                "I'll talk to her about it, I guess," he mumbled, feeling bad for not noticing and defending his brother. He hoped that Scott hadn't been mad at him.

                "You don't have to. Scott got over it." Before Derek could continue, the front door opened and Scott walked into the living room wearing a bright orange, plastic rain hat.

                "Look what the doctor gave me for being a good patient with a nice smile! I bet the doctor wouldn't give you one of these bad boys, Derek," Scott pointed to his hat, even though he looked ridiculous. "Oh! Hey, Stiles!"

                Stiles gave Scott a little wave. "Nice hat."

                "I know, right! I'm going to go put it in my room!" Scott smiled proudly and walked upstairs.

                "He's a weird kid," Derek muttered before his mom walked in.

                "Stiles?" She asked, not even saying hello. "When did you get here?"

                "Hi Melissa," Stiles said. Derek felt him tense up at his side, meaning that he was probably worried about her calling his parents. "I got here about half an hour ago. Derek let me in. Sorry, I didn't know that you and Scott were out."

                "That's alright. You know that you're always welcome here," She told him, turning to walk into the kitchen.

                "I'll be right back," Derek said to Stiles, quickly following his mom into the kitchen. "You should call Claudia."

                Melissa put down a few of the papers that she must've gotten from the Doctor. "Did something happen? Is Stiles alright?"

                "They told Mr. Stilinski about the Wizard world," Derek whispered, in case Stiles was eavesdropping. "I don't think John was mad about it or anything, but he must've said something that sent Stiles off because he ran here, for some reason. I wanted to let him cool down before I called his mom."

                "Oh, dear, I'll call her right now. Thank you for doing that, Derek," she said, swiftly grabbing the house phone and starting to put in the Stilinski's phone number. Derek nodded and ran back into the living room.

                Stiles didn't look at him, knowing that his mom was going to be coming for him in approximately ten minutes. Stiles and Derek remained quiet until they heard that knock on the door.

                Stiles spoke. "That's my mom, I'm guessing?"

                "Most likely, yes." Derek acknowledged.

                 "You told your mom, huh?"

                "Yes."

                They were proved right when Claudia came into the room. She ran up to Stiles and hugged him, "Oh, you're alright! We were worried."

                Stiles buried his face in his mom's neck."I'm sorry."

                "Oh baby, don't be sorry. Your dad is at the door talking to Melissa. He wants to talk to you and tell you that he loves you, alright? I did all the explaining, and he actually thinks that it's really cool that you're a wizard. He's excited for you that you're going to Hogwarts."

                "Really?" Stiles beamed.

                "Yes! You can go talk to him!" she laughed, letting Stiles out of her arms. He ran out of the room to go hug his dad.

                Derek thought about his own dad who would never be around to be happy for Scott going to Hogwarts, but Derek also had to smile because Stiles was happy. Claudia sat down on the couch next to Derek where Stiles had just been.

                She watched the television for a few seconds before saying, "Thank you."

                "For what?"

                "For taking care of him. Melissa told us on the phone that you were the only one here when he arrived, and you'd let him in. So, thank you for watching over him."

                "Of course, I care about him." Derek looked at Claudia who was looking right back at him with wonder.

                "He really admires you, you know?" She told him. "He doesn't exactly look up to you like you're his older brother, he looks to you like your his peer who just happens to be quite wise."

                "I'm only sixteen. I'm not exactly wise," He grinned. He'd never thought about what Stiles had thought of him.

                "You're wiser than you think." She placed her hand on his shoulder for a few good moments before standing up again to leave. "You two are good to have in each other's lives, is all I'm saying. I'll see you in a couple of days, okay?"

                "Yea, I'll see you then," Derek said, letting her leave. He had to take a look out of the window to where it was raining outside, as usual. He thought about what she said, " _You two are good to have in each other's lives..."_ He couldn't decide what it meant.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this was more of a filler chapter. I hope you are all enjoying yourselves and that your days are wonderful and lovely :)


	6. The Last Year of Claudia Stilinski

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Derek finally sees the little negatives of Elsa, and moves on, maybe too quickly, with someone quite unexpected.

"Elsa!" Derek called to her from across the courtyard. She was talking and laughing with a Slytherin girl that Derek couldn't remember the name of. "Elsa, I have to show you something!" He called again, finally getting her attention as he got closer to her.  
Elsa excused herself from her friend. "What is it?" Her pale eyes flickered to a piece of parchment in his hand.  
"Scott is doing awesome in potions. It's funny that he excels in the one thing I suck at," Derek grins, showing Elsa the proof with a note of recommendation from Scott's professor, suggesting that Scott be a part of the higher level potions class. Elsa wasn't giving him a reaction so he continued speaking. "It's funny how also he isn't doing as awesome in Defence against the Dark Arts, but that's my best class. My mom says that I take after my dad and Scott takes after my uncle, Peter."  
"Is this real?" Elsa asked in a state of disbelief when looking at the paper. "I'm surprised that Scott is actually doing so well."  
Derek blinked at her and tilted his head. "What is that supposed to mean, exactly?"  
She handed him back the recommendation slip. "Scott is not exactly the smartest wizard I've ever come across. I thought he'd just be one of those guys that stuck to quidditch, and would skip class regularly," She admitted. "There's a reason that he wasn't put into Ravenclaw."  
Derek scoffed, "My brother is smart. And you're not in Ravenclaw either, Elsa, so that doesn't mean anything. If Scott had been sorted into Ravenclaw, he would've done wonderfully."  
"Derek, I'm sorry. I didn't really mean it like that. He even keeps asking me about my sister, but I can't introduce them. He wouldn't be good for her. It's just... well you know how he is. He's always running around with that Stiles kid."  
Derek thought about what Stiles had told him about Elsa before they went off to Hogwarts, and right before his eyes, he realized that everything was true. "How is Scott not good enough for you sister? What does that say about me? And what's wrong with Stiles?"  
Elsa ignored the first half of the question. "Derek, are you seriously asking that? The kid is so weird. No wonder that Jackson kid is so mean to him all the time," Elsa smirked, playing with a bracelet on her wrist that Derek had bought her at Hogsmeade, two weeks before. "Why do you hang around him anyways? Like I mean its fine that you're nice to him, but you don't have to actually hang out with him. Derek, you're sixteen, and he's eleven."  
"Age doesn't mean anything. He's much nicer than some of the people I've spoken to in sixth year or even seventh year," He said, his eyebrows more furrowed than usual.  
Elsa looked a bit hurt. "Are you talking about me?"  
He glanced to the side, looking into the hallway where Stiles happened to be walking with another kid who Derek didn't know very well --Danny, he thought. At the start of the year, Stiles was having a hard time making friends, especially when Scott was sorted into Gryffindor and he was sorted into Ravenclaw. But with Derek around, some people sort of saw Stiles as cool. Derek was glad that he had at least a couple friends in his house. "I don't know," Derek responded honestly. "You just shouldn't be so rude when talking about Scott. You wouldn't like it if I spoke negatively about Allison."  
"What's wrong with Allison?" Elsa asked, crossing her arms in front of her chest.  
"Nothing is wrong with her. But she hangs out with Jackson, who is bullying Stiles. And you don't even do anything about it!"  
Elsa raised an eyebrow. "I can't do anything about it. Jackson is a nice kid, and so is his brother. Dalton is-"  
"Dalton? Seriously, you've never even spoken to him."  
"I could if I wanted to," She said as if it was a challenge. Derek had to roll his eyes. He and Elsa had never fought before. He could only recall ever being angry with her once before, when she had laughed about him being angry because he lost a quidditch match.  
"I have to go," he mumbled, not wanting to look at her. Had he really been so oblivious for so many years?  
"I'll see you later tonight," she sighed.  
"No. No, you won't," He grumbled, walking away from her before she could say anything. It was Friday night, there was no way that he was just going to go back to the Gryffindor common room when there was always parties going on. Angrily stuffing the note in his pocket, Derek went to go find Albus.  
"Derek," Albus greeted once he finally found him out on the quidditch stands, doing his homework. Albus enjoyed going there when he needed to concentrate on something, or just think for a while. "What are you so grumpy about, today?" Albus closed his text book, wanting to hear what Derek had to say.  
Derek ignored the question and asked, "Do you know of any good parties that we could go to tonight?"  
Albus stared at him, dumbfounded. Derek wasn't huge on partying, and Albus was always trying to get him to come along. "Yea, I do, actually. You can come with me to this one party at the shrieking shack. A few seventh years always cast a spell on the whomping willow so everyone can get into the secret passageway, every month or so. The teachers never find out. It's awesome. Bring Elsa if you want."  
"I'm not bringing Elsa," Derek glared.  
Albus didn't ask. Instead he packed up his books into his bag excitedly. "Wow. I never thought you would ask. You're going to have so much fun. Come on, we're going to find you something to wear so you actually look hot. You always just wear these lame sweaters or your robes." Derek had never thought of his sweaters as lame. He hadn't ever really thought about how he looked at all, because he didn't really care. Simple hoodies did him just fine."You can borrow one of my v-necks. You'd look good in black, I think?" Albus was examining Derek's body with his eyes.  
They took the long walk to their rooms. Albus was going through a few of his shirts while Derek awkwardly sat on his bed without a shirt on. Albus held up a navy blue tee. "My black one was in the wash. The only other black shirt I have is that Henley, but it would probably be too tight on you." Albus took a look at Derek's arms, which just kept gaining muscle as he grew. "Maybe tight would be good, though? Then everyone can see those biceps."  
Derek grinned as he took the shirt from Albus' hands. He slipped it on and took a look in the mirror next to Albus' bed. He did look good. He usually would cover up his arms, but he liked this change from his usual bright sweaters, to this dark v-neck, which allowed his collar bones to peak out a bit. "Wow, I can really see your eyes," Albus said, looking at Derek proudly and nudging him in the ribs. "I should be a stylist."Derek took a deep breath in and then puffed up his chest. He couldn't wait until he was older and his muscles would actually even out, but for then, this would have to do.  
***  
Sneaking out wasn't hard at all. The rules of the castle weren't too strict, those days. Students weren't necessarily allowed to go outside past certain hours, but they were allowed to wander the halls if they say, couldn't sleep, making getting out of the castle quite easy. Sure, finding a secret passageway to the shrieking shack would be considered as breaking the rules, but no one ever found out about it, and if they had, they didn't seem to care because nothing bad ever happened. Hogwarts was a safer place than it ever had been.  
Derek and Albus somehow got split up after about five minutes of arriving at the party. Somehow, people had managed to get alcohol, which wasn't a big surprise. The real surprise was, Derek actually decided to have some. He didn't care about the hangover he would probably have the next day, and he didn't care about how hard it would be to walk back to the Gryffindor common room. He only cared about getting his mind of off Elsa. He pushed away the voice of his mum in his head telling him how he had "bad coping skills."  
Dalton Whittemore, of course, was at the party. Derek was not completely drunk yet, but he wasn't afraid to admit that Dalton was an attractive guy, which is what Derek found himself telling Dalton in the middle of the room. He didn't know why he felt such the need to tell him that.  
Dalton looked at Derek, amused. "You're Derek Hall, right?"  
Derek nodded, taking a sip from his drink. "I don't come to these very often. My dad was sort of a drunken idiot. A few years ago he even ended up accidentally pushing my brother over. My brother now has a scar hidden in his hair. I haven't seen my dad since." Derek looked around at the party quickly. Albus was still nowhere to be found. Derek shook his head and turned back to Dalton. "I don't know why I'm telling you my daddy issues. I don't even know you."  
"It's fine. You're a cute guy," Dalton smiled sweetly. Derek was oblivious to how close they were standing.  
"Are you and your brother close?" Derek asked, thinking about Stiles.  
"Not really, no. We're not even in the same house. He is too ambitious for me. I'm more of a creative, carefree type of guy."  
"Good," Derek huffs. "You're brother bullies my brother's friend. I don't like your brother."  
Dalton can't help but laugh. "Understandable." When Dalton laughed, Derek understood how some girls could like him so much. Even through the loud music, Derek thought that Dalton's laugh was like listening to the angels sing. "You're in Gryffindor." Dalton didn't say it as a question.  
"Yea, I am. I thought I was going to be in Hufflepuff and so did my parents. But for some reason I was seen as brave, or something, so I ended up with a red and gold tie."  
Dalton placed a hand on Derek's bicep, but not in the same type of way that his mom or Claudia would. Dalton's fingers were rubbing at his skin, just peaking under the sleeve of Derek's shirt. "It means that you're chivalrous, like a knight. I like that."Dalton was looking right into Derek's eyes, but it didn't feel uncomfortable. Derek liked the feel of Dalton's stare, and his hand. Dalton's smile faded and he went serious, "Do you want to get out of here?"  
"It's cold outside," Derek frowned.  
Dalton let out his dazzling laugh again. "We can go back to the castle. Walk around for a bit?"  
Derek downed the rest of his drink. "Sure. I don't even like parties. I don't come to these very often."  
"You said that."  
"Sorry. This girl and I got in a fight earlier. She was insulting my brother. Only I'm allowed to do that."  
Dalton was escorting Derek out of the shrieking shack, which felt as if it was about to fall apart from having so many people moving around within. It was literally shaking from the beat of the music, sort of like the way Derek's heart was beating, and his hands were shaking. He didn't know if that was due to the alcohol or Dalton.  
Once they finally reached the grounds of Hogwarts, Dalton had to hold Derek's hand to help him out of the hole under the whomping willow, and he just never let go, even when Derek was walking. Sure, Derek was sort of wobbly as he walked, but he could take care of himself, but then again, he wasn't complaining either.  
"So, this girl that you got into a fight with, is she your girlfriend?" Dalton asked. Derek liked how he wasn't shy about asking, and he also still really liked the feel of his hand.  
"I don't know," He sighed. He and Elsa had been together for quite a long time, but maybe it wasn't meant to be. They hadn't broken up, so really, he was lying, but he didn't really want to think about her. "You don't have a boyfriend, do you?"  
Dalton grinned and shook his head. The two of them had reached the inside of the school, and Derek was being lead through the dark hallways, as if Dalton had a destination in mind. "No, I don't have a boyfriend at the moment."  
"How do you not? You're too good looking to not have a boyfriend," Derek muttered, taking a look at Dalton for the hundredth time.  
"I guess I'm not that big on commitment?" Dalton shrugged. They stopped in front of a bare wall, in a hallway that Derek didn't walk through very often. Dalton turned so that he was facing Derek. Dalton licked his bottom lip smoothly, wanting to say something but not coming up with anything.  
Derek was trying his hardest to hold himself back from his sudden urge to press his lips against Dalton's full and glistening ones. "Commitment is no fun," Derek said and realized how drunk he was.  
Dalton didn't hold back at all when he realized how much he had wanted to kiss Derek. He took a step forward and kissed him, which Derek fully allowed. It only took two seconds for Derek to realize that kissing Dalton was about a hundred times better than kissing Elsa. With Dalton, Derek was actually able to feel something just by the touch of their lips. Dalton wasn't afraid of putting his arms around Derek's waist, and Derek knew that he could never go back to Elsa.  
Before Derek could say anything after they had pulled apart, the wall next to them suddenly began opening up, revealing a door. "What the hell?" Derek muttered, feeling the door.  
"It's the room of requirement," Dalton told him. Derek had heard about the room, but he had never really tried to find it. "It reveals itself when it knows it's needed."  
"And it's needed, right now?" Derek raised an eyebrow at Dalton. He opened the door, when Dalton didn't say anything, revealing a grand room with lustrous walls and dark flooring. Derek noticed the small, comfy looking bed right in the center of the room, and looked at Dalton to see him smiling sheepishly. "Well, isn't that handy," Derek commented, hiding his little grin.  
Dalton took Derek in his arms, their lips clashing together again. Derek could feel himself getting eager, which is something he'd never experienced with Elsa. All worries of what he was supposed to tell Albus in the morning when he'd ask where he had run off to, or worries about Elsa, easily wiped away as Dalton laid Derek on the bed and began undoing his belt buckle.

***  
Christmas Holidays  
Derek, Scott, and Stiles, all arrived back at their homes. Elsa was suddenly out of Derek's life, and no one bothered to ask why, not even Albus, which he was thankful for. Albus and Elsa only sort of remained friends after Derek had ended things with her, which was okay because Albus was never particularly close with her to begin with. Derek was happier to spend his weekdays with Albus, or even Stiles, and he spent a majority of his weekends in the room of requirement with Dalton. Since their first night together, they had kept a sort of no strings attached relationship.   
Claudia was sitting at the kitchen table, talking to Melissa about their weird mom things. Derek hadn't seen Claudia since he said goodbye at the start of the year, so he was expecting to see her usual mess of a hair, along with her usually joyful eyes, but instead he walked in on her to see that her hair was gone. She wore a flowery bandana over her bald head, but her smile hadn't faded. Melissa and Claudia stopped talking once they saw Derek standing in the doorway, staring at Claudia.   
He was planning on telling them about Dalton; they wouldn't judge him. But once he saw Claudia, he felt that it would've been selfish to start talking about himself. "How long has this been going on?" Derek asked the two of them.   
Claudia stood up, eying Melissa. "I didn't hear you come in. I thought you were still asleep."  
Derek crossed his arms, and leaned against the door frame. "I've been awake for a while. I was playing videogames with Scott and Stiles for quite some time, so I figured that you were here. Please answer my question."  
"Derek-" Melissa started walking towards him, but Claudia held her hand up because she wanted to speak.   
"This is why Stiles was doing so bad at the game earlier," Derek grumbled to himself.   
"He figured out about it just yesterday, when he got home," Claudia nodded. "I was diagnosed in August."  
"August!? And you didn't mention that to anyone? You let your son go off to Hogwarts, while you stayed at home, sick?"  
Melissa was at Derek's side, holding his arm, "Don't be mad."  
"It's alright, Melissa," Claudia told her then looked to Derek again. "I didn't want my son starting the year off worrying about me. His whole life, he'd dreamed about that school and I didn't want to ruin it for him. I wasn't going to tell him, or anyone besides Melissa and my husband until I was fully aware of how near my end might be."  
Derek tried finding his words. "You're going to die?" his voice came out in a croaky whisper.  
She nodded. "I'm sorry." That was not at all what he was expecting when he woke up that morning.   
"Don't apologize," He sighed. "How long... do you have?"  
"We don't know exactly. But we know for sure that this time next year, I won't be here." She held her head up; her voice remained clear and calm and Derek thought that it was the bravest thing he'd ever seen.   
Derek kept from crying, for her, and for Stiles who was just upstairs. He walked to her, holding him in her arms. He took in how thin she felt compared to the last time he'd seen her. He rested his head on the top of her head, embracing her lightly as if she was going to break, but she held him tightly.   
***  
They didn't talk about it again; Claudia didn't want to bring it up. They all learned to accept that her beautiful curls were gone, and they treated her like they always would. Derek didn't cry, even when no one was around. He just continued on normally, sending letters to Dalton and Albus, playing video games with Scott, and watching Doctor Who with Stiles. Stiles didn't seem to cry about his mother either. He mostly didn't talk about her, but he seemed to come over to the Hall house less because he needed to be with his mom more often. Derek didn't let himself think about it until New Year's Eve.   
Derek sat in the yard of the Stilinski's home, along with a whole lot of adults. Even though it was cold outside that night, he only wore a thin black sweater over his white tee shirt. No one cared that he had a drink in his hand. He was feeling pretty good despite only knowing a couple people at the party, but that's how it had been every year. Dalton had invited Derek to a party, but Derek kindly declined after explaining Claudia's situation, which Dalton understood. Derek didn't feel alone, sitting by himself on a lawn chair. He could hear the children playing inside, Stiles' loud voice sticking out, and he could see his mom talking to John happily, while Claudia laughed with someone he didn't know. He smiled, looking around at all the strangers until his eyes fell upon someone awfully familiar, who was staring right back at him. She still had beautiful blonde hair, and was wearing her killer smile. Looking at him was Kate Argent.   
He tried thinking of all the reasons why she would be at the party, but couldn't think of one before she approached him. "Derek," she smiled, taking a seat beside him, "I didn't know that you knew Claudia."   
"I didn't know that you knew Claudia," he said right back to her.   
She laughed, placing a hand on his thigh. "We went to school together. I was in town on a business meeting, and happened to run into her." Derek felt himself wishing that Claudia wasn't so polite all the time, and had just let Kate spend New Year's Eve with coworkers instead. "I hear you broke my niece's heart."  
"I'm sorry that I did." That wasn't a lie. He couldn't forget the saddened look of Elsa's face when he was ending things with her.   
"It's okay. She's going to grow up and break plenty hearts to make up for yours," Kate smirked. Luckily, she probably got the hint by the look on his face that he didn't want to talk about Elsa, so she changed the subject. Changing the subject, unfortunately, didn't turn out to be any better. "Are you close with Claudia? You know that she's dying, right? It's so sad, such a pretty face like hers."  
Derek hated that Kate was so gorgeous. It almost hid her weird vibes. "I am fully aware, yes. My mom, Melissa, over there, was the first to hear about it, besides John of course."  
Kate's eyes widened. "Melissa Hall? She's your mother? That means that Rafe is your dad, huh? He and I go way back."  
"That's great," he said, even though there was nothing good about that. He didn't even want to think about her knowing his dad.   
"I see where you get your good looks from."  
"I look more like my uncle. My brother, Scott, looks more like my dad."  
"I guess I can see that," she nodded, her thumb rubbing against his jeans. "You must be pretty tight with Claudia, considering her and your mom are best friends. This is her last New Year's Eve, then. It's a bummer, especially when she has her little son. The kid is pretty weird, but everyone still needs a mom."  
The way she spoke reminded him too much of Elsa, except she was worse, as if she'd been raised in a barn or by wolves. It hadn't occurred to him that this would be Claudia's last New Year's Eve. It had only been a few years ago that she sat with him on the roof, helping him feel better about his dad abandoning him.  
"Oh no, I've said something wrong. Don't start getting watery eyed on me. You're sixteen, you'll be fine," she said to him right before people started counting down from ten.   
Before he could yell at her, someone luckily dragged her away to probably kiss her once the clock reached 12:00. He sat by himself, actually feeling alone then, when the New Year struck. He watched Claudia share her last New Year's kiss with her husband. He had to leave before he started crying in front of everyone, but his mom caught his arm before he could, and she gave him a big hug.   
It was a blur, when she told him she loved him after wishing him a happy New Year. A few people around him also tapped his arm, wishing him the same thing, but he couldn't find the words to reply to them. Claudia eventually made her way to him, giving him a big hug, but she was soon whisked away by the strangers surrounding.   
Derek finally managed to stumble through the yard and sit out to the back alley. It was first and very last time he ever let himself cry for Claudia.   
***  
That Summer:  
"Derek, wake up!" Scott's voice yelled, right before Derek felt a pillow hit him in the face. The summer air snuck in through his window. "Mom says you need to go see Claudia!" Derek pushed Scott off of his bed, quickly getting up and grabbing some clothing from the floor. It was already August, and Claudia had been in the hospital since mid July. The past week had been tough for everyone, because the Doctors had announced that her time was going to be any day now, so when Derek heard what Scott had said, he knew he had no time to waist with sleeping.   
"Are you coming too?" Derek quickly asked Scott, who followed him all the way downstairs to their front door.   
"No. I spent some time with her last night, with mom. I don't think I can do that again," Scott muttered. Derek realized he meant his mother and he had said their goodbyes to Claudia already, and now this was probably going to be his turn. "Claudia just wanted to be alone with you, apparently. Mom is waiting in the car."  
Derek had to hug his little brother before he ran out to the car. He and Melissa remained quiet for the whole ride there. Melissa didn't want to go into the hospital; she decided to sit in the car and wait until he came out, so he ran in alone, after quickly saying goodbye to his mom.  
He was so used to the hospital by then, that he waved at a few of the regular nurses, and ran though the hallways like he did that every day --which was mostly true, actually. Once he arrived to Claudia's room, he felt his heart sink in his chest. Stiles, who was twelve years old then, sat at the end of the bed looking so small while he talked with his mom. At the start of the summer, Stiles had shaved his head for his mom, but his hair was already growing back to a short buzz cut. He had looked so different a year before, and it took Derek a moment to recognize him.   
"Derek, hi," Claudia smiled once she noticed him. "Stiles, if it's alright, could you let us have alone time for a while?"  
Stiles nodded, kissing his mom on the cheek before leaving the room. "I'll see you later."  
"Thanks, Stiles," Derek muttered, patting him on the back before he left.   
Claudia looked so fragile, lying on the bed, wires and tubes all over her. "You look tired," She commented. "Take a seat. This morning Stiles gave me this card, isn't it cute?" He took a seat and noticed the handmade card on the bedside table, next to the both of them. He saw Stiles' drawings of wolves running around on a cliff, their cartoon faces smiling. Stiles had written, "I love you," in the clouds. He signed his name at the bottom.   
"I didn't get you anything, I'm sorry," Derek said.  
She reached out to grab his hand. He placed his hand softly over hers, letting them rest on the bed. "It's alright, dear. You've given me a lot already. I don't need anything except your company."  
Derek had to sniffle, and he bit down on his bottom lip. "I've been meaning to tell you something since Christmas holidays. I kept putting it off because I didn't want to bother you with it. But I really need to tell you."  
"You wouldn't be bothering me with it. You can always tell me anything, and you know that."  
He nodded. He was more nervous than he had thought he would be. "There's um, there's this guy named Dalton. I'm not sure if I have mentioned him. We... uh... and I just.. I..." He couldn't find the way to tell her, even after months of planning.   
"And you're in love with him," She said simply.  
He blinked, looking up at her. "How did you know that?"  
She laughed in a light and croaky way. "You've been asking me advice for love letters all summer, and I guess I put the pieces together."  
"Oh," was all he could say.  
She smiled at him sincerely. "I'm happy for you. Of course, I still am not a big fan of his brother, but Dalton seems like a good guy. Jackson also wasn't so bad with Stiles for the last half of the year, so I'm guessing you said something?"  
Derek nodded. "I sort of did, yea."  
"Thank you. I've said this many times before, but Stiles really looks up to you. He really does love you," Claudia said, smiling at the thought of her son. "Derek, listen, I don't care who you love, because I trust your judgement. You've never failed me or our families. I will always love you as my own son. And I can't wait until you find someone who loves you as much as I love my husband, because you are going to have, or adopt, the best children ever and you're going to live such a wonderful life."  
Derek blinked back tears and rested his elbows on the bed, next to Claudia. "I don't want to do this without you," he admitted for the first time, to even himself.   
"You're not going to do it without me, I promise. I'll be right with you, every step of the way."  
Derek rested his head in his hands, unable to say anything. Claudia stroked his cheek soothingly, embracing the quiet for a few good minutes until someone knocked on the door.   
Derek turned to see Mr. Stilinski, looking at the two of them. "Derek, sorry, I'll let you two have a moment."  
"No, it's alright," Derek muttered, standing up from his chair, but John left the room anyways, probably just waiting right outside the door.  
He leaned down and gave Claudia one last good hug. They didn't let go for a while. Claudia said to him, "Thank you for everything. I love you so much."  
He mumbled into the crook of her neck. "I love you, too. Thank you."  
They held on for another good minute without saying anything.   
He knew he had to let go eventually, so he finally did, but she had one more thing to say. "Promise me you'll take care of him."  
"Who?" he asked even though he had an idea.  
"Stiles," she said her voice weak. Her eyes had lost their sparkle from the first time he'd seen her.   
"Of course," he promised, which was the last thing he ever said to her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I swear, the next chapter will be when Derek is finally a professor okay. I apologize that the background story had to be so long. I got a bit carried away.  
> (Also, ignore all of the little mistakes I've made. I didn't bother to have this Beta read because I'm too lazy and this was just supposed to be something that I was writing with my free time)


	7. Professor Hall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Years after not speaking to each other, Stiles and Derek finally interact again. Derek surprised him by showing up as Stiles' seventh year Defense Against the Dark Arts professor.

The seventeen year old, Stiles Stilinski, walked into the classroom alone, textbooks in hand and tie a not completely tightened. A red head girl waved at him, and he waved back but the two of them sat on opposite ends of the class. He didn't even notice the professor sitting at the front and staring right at him.   
It had been quite a number of years since Derek had seen Stiles last. Stiles was then in his seventh year of Hogwarts, and already getting prepared to go be a journalist. His hair was longer than before. Derek was used to his buzz cut, which made him look young. But now his hair was styled up and his muscles had filled in and he wasn't the skinny and defenceless Stiles anymore.  
Derek began writing his name on the chalk board once the class began to quiet down. "Good morning, class. My name is Professor Hall. It's not hard to remember, so I'll be trusting that it's the only name any of you will be calling me by," he said, eyes flickering to Stiles, who's mouth was gapped open slightly as usual. Everyone nodded a bit; the girls looking at Derek with adoring eyes.   
"We'll be playing a game. It's just so I can learn your names a bit better and get an idea about the way you guys think. I know everyone hates these first day things, but they seriously help your professor, who is horrible at remembering names." Derek paces the floor as he explained. He was starting off the school year confident and clear, prepared for anything. "I'm simply going to point at you and then you'll tell me your name. I'll respond with a question and you'll respond with an answer. For example..." Derek looked directly at Stiles, pointing to him. "Ravenclaw with the brown eyes."  
Stiles licked his bottom lip before saying, "I'm Stiles."  
Derek nodded, "Yes. Good morning. Now, can you tell me who won the quidditch world cup two years ago?" Derek knew that he'd be able to answer that.   
"Amsterdam," Stiles replied almost instantly, still a bit stunned by the fact that Derek was standing in front of him. The last time they spoke was around five years before, when Derek was graduating from Hogwarts. "The game was almost a tie until Ardon caught the snitch."  
"Very good," Derek gave Stiles a small smile before turning to the red-haired girl who had her hand raised. "Yes?"  
"I don't think this game is exactly fair. Some people are shy and don't exactly want pressure put on them. Plus, not everyone cares about quidditch." She had her lips pursed and seemed like she'd be the type of girl who was intimidating and Derek would've avoided when he was a student.  
"Fair enough. Well, who'd like to go next then?"  
Several girls eagerly raised their hands, wanting the professor's attention. Derek pointed at a Gryffindor girl sitting in the back.   
"I'm Kira," she smiled, but it wasn't a flirty smile like the rest of the girls'. She just smiled at him normally; friendly.  
"Kira," he smiled back. He tried to take her in, get a sense of a question which was perfect for her. He was good at deductions and figuring out how people worked. "What was the name of the famous criminal who first escaped from Azkaban?"  
"Oh! Sirius Black!" Kira seemed proud that she knew the answer.  
"Ahem," the red-head interrupted. "Sirius Black was later proved as innocent, so he's not actually that relevant anymore."  
"Yea, but Lydia, he still escaped from Azkaban, and also was Harry Potter's god father. He's pretty important. No one just escapes from Azkaban," Stiles spoke up. Derek could tell he was trying desperately not to roll his eyes, which was a trait he had picked up from the Halls.   
Derek looked at the red haired girl. "Lydia?" She nodded. "I see you're the type of witch who enjoys correcting others, which means you must be a smart girl, am I correct?" She shrugs, cockily looking at her nails. "Can you tell me who happened to die right in this very room during the battle of Hogwarts?"  
Lydia suddenly looked panicked. He'd found something she could not answer and he had to hold back from smiling. "Now, would anyone else care to answer the question for Miss Lydia, here?" Derek looked around the room. Stiles happened to be the only one holding his hand high.  
"Stiles?" Derek gestured.  
"Talia Hall," Stiles muttered Derek's aunt's name. Stiles' mom had been in the room as well when the horrible Bellatrix LeStrange had come in, so it wasn't surprising that Stiles had known the story. Claudia had been hidden behind a magical barrier, along with a few others, which Talia put on the room. Talia wanted to stand up and fight, or die trying, which is exactly what happened. In the end, Talia had saved the dozen people in the room, including Claudia.  
"Talia was a member of Dumbledoor's Army! We learned about her a couple years ago," The curly haired boy next to Stiles said. "Did she really die right in this room?"  
Derek nodded. "What's your name?"  
"Isaac. Isaac Lahey," the boy murmured. "Talia was your aunt then, right?"  
Derek nodded, "I hadn't been born at the time, obviously. But she saved quite a number of lives that day, and for that I am grateful of her bravery." Derek noticed Stiles staring blankly at his hands, making him feel like he never should've brought up the topic. Claudia passed away years ago, but it still would've hurt Stiles when she was brought up.  
"So," Derek wanted to change the topic, "next question."  
***  
Stiles remained quiet for the remainder of class, hardly even looking up at the professor. He didn't want to look at Derek's stubble around his mouth which had been smiling more than he'd ever seen. He didn't want to hear him sound happy about the dark arts while Lydia failed to come up with good comebacks. He didn't want to look at Derek, Derek, who was happy and beautiful, and Stiles didn't like it.   
At the end of class, everyone packed their things up and left as usual. Stiles took time with his bag because he had potions next, which he wasn't very fond of. That's when Kira ran to the front of the classroom where Derek-- Professor Hall, was sitting on the desk, arms crossed as he said goodbye to some of the kids. Stiles watched nonchalantly as Kira gave Derek a friendly smile.   
"Kira, hello, Is something wrong?" Derek asked her and Stiles could tell he actually cared about the answer.   
Kira shook her head. "I just wanted to ask if you knew Scott Hall, as your last names are the same." Stiles knew that Kira knew Scott was in fact related to Derek, but he didn't say anything.  
Derek probably knew as well. He grinned as he nodded, "Scott is my brother, actually. I was wondering if you were the Kira he'd spoken about. It's nice to finally meet you."  
Even from where Stiles was sitting he noticed the blush coming to Kira's cheeks. "He's spoken about me? Wow, okay."  
"He's fond of you." Derek laughed under his breath as Kira failed to hold back how flattered she was. He caught Stiles' eye for but a moment, until Stiles quickly flickered his eyes away and stood, putting his bag on his shoulders. "I think you should be going, I don't want you to be late for your next class."  
"Right," she nodded. "I'll see you tomorrow, Professor Hall."  
He gave her a little wave before she skipped out, "See you, Kira."  
Stiles was surprisingly still standing at his desk, pretending to be picking up his papers. He and Derek were the only two people in the room, so it wasn't surprising when Stiles looked up to see Derek looking right back at him. Stiles turned to head towards the door and leave but Derek called his name.   
"Stiles, um, can you hold on a moment." Stiles turned, his mouth opened as if he wanted to protest so Derek just continued speaking. "Did Scott tell you that I was working here?"  
"No, he didn't actually." Stiles looked down at his sneakers peeking out from under his robes. "I didn't know about it until you were introduced at the Great Hall the other day."   
"I'm sorry that this might've come to a surprise to you then." Stiles could tell that Derek was being sincere and honest. Stiles was trying his hardest not to go give him a hug like he would when he was a kid, but now he was grown up and they weren't friends anymore, and they would never be friends again.   
"I'll see you tomorrow Der- Professor," Stiles said, actually leaving this time, just as students began entered for the next class.  
***  
It was the first weekend that everyone had off since school started. Derek spent his day in the great hall where it was surprisingly quiet, which made it easier for him to write notes for the following week. There was always about six or seven kids that would come in, study or read, or gossip quietly with their friend, but that was about it. It was peaceful and he enjoyed spending his day there, especially with the enchanted ceiling above.   
Stiles spent his Saturday with Lydia in the Ravenclaw dormitory. She helped him come up with an idea for an upcoming project, but his mind was caught up in the fact that he had missed the recent episode of Doctor Who, due to the dorms still not having wifi or television. The only wifi zone in the school was in the library, which had just been added two years before. After a couple hours of homework, Stiles needed a break from Lydia's sass. She understood as he excused himself, grabbing his backpack which contained his laptop and some headphones, and then left for the library.   
At the same time, Derek had finished the notes for the next day and headed off to the library to print them off. Once he got there, Stiles was already sitting on a couch, headphones in and catching up on the Doctor's Regeneration. A good thing about having very limited internet access all week was that he had no idea who this new doctor was, replacing the beloved David Tennant. He remembered crying over the last regeneration a couple years back, so he couldn't imagine how he'd react today. Derek saw Stiles the second he walked in. He had on his old red hoodie, and was the only one on a laptop and not reading or doing homework. Derek couldn't see the screen but he saw Stiles' sad face, so he decided to walk behind him to get a look at what was happening.  
He understood, the second he saw what Stiles was watching. Derek shook his head with a little smile at how Stiles was still apparently just as obsessed with the show. It was good to know that some things hadn't changed. Derek continued on, printed off his notes, and then sat down at the couch next to Stiles to organize the papers.   
The doctor said his finally words, "I don't want to go," and Stiles was trying his hardest not to start sobbing in the middle of the library where everyone knew him. He had to cover his face with his hands and take deep breaths in. He desperately was in need of a tissue and almost threw the laptop away when someone handed him one.   
Derek was holding a tissue right in Stiles' face, though he was still concentrating on his papers and work so he wouldn't have any homework the next day. Stiles took the tissue shamelessly, trying not to think about how long Derek had been sitting there without him noticing.  
"Don't worry; you have plenty of time to heal. New episodes aren't starting up for a while," Derek told Stiles once he'd finished the episode and removed his headphones while sitting in his state of sadness.   
"You still watch this show?" Stiles asked him while snuffling.   
"Obviously. I probably started watching it before you were born."  
"Whatever," Stiles scoffed, looking away from Derek. All week he had wanted to stay late at the end of class to talk to Derek about how his life was going; he wanted to ask about how post secondary was; how college was; if he had a girlfriend; if he was still into guys... Stiles also wanted to tell him about the quidditch team and how he was sleeping better these days. He wanted to tell him that his dad was smiling more often and how Jackson Whittemore switched schools. Stiles wanted Derek to get over the past, and he wanted to admit that he had missed him in his life.   
"Do you think we'll ever see Rose again?" Stiles asked casually.  
"Nope."  
"What do you think the new Doctor is going to be like? I don't think I saw eyebrows?"   
Derek rolls his eyes and takes his attention away from his work and gives it to Stiles. "I researched the guy. He's pretty cool. Has nice hair. I can't remember the new companion's name at the moment but the actress was actually in an episode before, which is cool."  
"But she's not Rose," Stiles whined. Ever since the very first episode with the ninth Doctor, Stiles had loved Rose, and Derek knew that.  
"Stiles, geez, pull yourself together. You are in a public place," Derek glared. Stiles sat back and remained calm, avoiding eye contact with Derek. Derek, who was his Professor; Stiles couldn't be acting this way around him. He stood up, packing away his laptop, and left as quickly as he could. He knew speaking to Derek about anything other than last night's homework, was a mistake. Derek wasn't the same sad and teasing kid, he was a fully grown adult with a degree, who had his own home where he probably lived with a really hot girlfriend. He probably didn't think about Stiles for even a second in the past few years.   
At Claudia's funeral, Stiles stuck to Derek the whole time, even when they had gone home. Stiles still hadn't understood why Derek had suddenly stopped speaking to him after that day. Even aftere everything they had been through, Derek spent his final year at Hogwarts not even taking a glance at Stiles. Since then, Stiles had come up with many ideas of what had gone wrong, and he eventually decided that maybe he had done something wrong himself. Stiles, for years, had tried writing Derek letters, but he never received any back. He couldn't think of what had done wrong exactly and he always thought that maybe in another life, they could've still been friends. Stiles had never stopped thinking about him. One drunken night, he even found himself blabbering to Scott about how much he missed his "hot older bro," and later writing Derek his last letter. Stiles couldn't remember what he had written in the letter, and he would spend forever trying to remember because it was most likely quite embarrassing, knowing him.   
"Stiles!" Scott yelled as he sat next to Stiles in the grass, bringing Stiles out of his daydream. "I've been looking for you all day! Where have you been?"  
Stiles closed the book, not caring about where it had been left off. "I was in my dorm for a while, and then I went to the library. You know regular stuff."  
"Wow, you're actually reading that?" Scott grabbed the book from Stiles' lap, shaking his head. "I tried reading it to make Allison happy, but it was so boring."  
"I kind of like it."  
"Hmm. Well, I was wondering if you were going to Danny's party tonight." Scott probably didn't really care if Stiles was going to be there, because he'd be off with Kira anyways. But Scott was a good friend, and he needed to make sure that Stiles was participating in regular teenage activities so he wouldn't get depressed or lonely.   
"Maybe. Lydia sort of mentioned going. And she and Aiden are in a fight right now so it's not like she's going with him."   
Scott patted his back, "Sweet. As long as we don't get caught by any professor like last time, then we're all good." That made Stiles smile. Last year, Isaac hosted a party in the room of requirement, where most of the parties were held, and usually a few teachers figured out about it, but they didn't bother ending the parties because they didn't cause a disturbance. But Ethan was a drunken idiot last time, and ran around in his underwear, covered in glow-in- the dark paint, racing through the hallways. The headmaster wanted to completely ban alcohol from the building after that, but luckily a few of the professors thought that having teenagers to go ten months without ever having alcohol would be an unrealistic expectation, especially because there was people of age living in the school.   
"Oh, I've been meaning to ask you, how is having your brother as your professor going?" Stiles asked, casually changing the subject as Derek was still on his mind.   
Scott shrugged. "It's alright. We just pretend we don't know each other. And that's easy because we don't really, anymore. He waves to me in the hallways sometimes, but that's about it. How is it for you?"   
Stiles wondered if he should be completely honest with Scott. He knew how close he and Derek were. "It's fine. He doesn't pick on me too much. He treats me like I'm smart, but it's sort of like he's trying too hard. It's awkward, really."  
"Maybe it's cause you actually started doing your hair and working out. He probably is falling in love," Scott winked, trying to joke around, despite his disappointment with his relationship with his own brother. "Does he know you're on the quidditch team, because I'm sure he'd be all over you?"  
Stiles rolled his eyes, not even answering. "I'm going to continue reading this book, thank you very much."  
Scott grinned, messing up Stiles' hair as he stood. "I'll see you later."  
Stiles leaned back, thinking. Derek didn't know about quidditch. Stiles grinned to himself as he thought up a plan. But it's not like he liked Derek or anything.   
***  
Stiles did end up going to the party, but not with Lydia. Alone, he entered the room of requirement and instantly was hit with a big wave of sound; his favourite song was playing and he heard his friend's voices calling his name while the wall closed up behind him. Lydia ended up spending the night catching up Aiden on homework, but everyone else was here. His friends. Allison ran up to him first, swinging her arm around him. He didn't come to their parties often, so they always made a big deal about it when he actually did come.   
"You're here!" Allison grinned, wrapping her other arm around his neck to give him a hug. Before he could tell her how Lydia had to practically drag him out of the Ravenclaw common room and give him a long lecture through the halls about being an active student, a sixth year Gryffindor girl wrapped her red and gold scarf around his neck, pulling him away from Allison and into the cluster of dancers. He'd never seen the girl before, which made him feel a bit guilty, because he'd always tried to know everyone's names. Especially when they would've been going to school together for six years. Also, she was gorgeous, with her smouldering eyes and dark brown hair that was caught and tangled in the quidditch goggles on her head. How could he have not noticed her before?  
She looked at him with a sexy smirk as the beats kept pounding in his ears. She wasn't wearing much makeup besides her metallic black eye shadow. Stiles was glad he'd listened to Lydia; Derek was finally starting to fade from his thoughts after a long day of regretting everything that had ever happened with him, right from the start with the chocolate milk moustache. He had to get over it. Derek didn't care about him. He could show Derek everything he'd be missing out on.   
"So you're Stiles Stilinski, huh?" The girl leered near his ear. And god, her voice was just as sexy as he'd imagined it would be two seconds before when he first laid eyes on her, and in all his dreams and fantasies --well, the ones that didn't have anything to do with Derek, that is.   
"Yea." He wrapped his arms around her waist as she did the same around his neck.   
"Malia." She said, as if she were reminding him of her name, even though he'd never heard of her before. "Good job with the game last week."  
"Thanks," he smiled like an idiot who has no idea how to flirt at all. He should've asked Lydia for advice; she would look at him with worried eyes for a good hour but eventually she'd get over it and Stiles would learn how to seduce women, or figure out if he even liked to seduce women. Malia just nodded and sways to the music, getting closer to him in the midst of the crowd. Scott watched them from afar with a concerned look on his face which Stiles noticed, but he couldn't figure out why so he just ignored it.   
It wasn't long before someone even gets a drink in his hand and he finds the ability to dance less awkwardly, and get as close as possible to Malia. They'd barely spoken two words that night, but his lips were so close to hers, he couldn't help but be a little turned on by her grinding movements. She pulled him in by running her fingers through his hair and pressing her lips firmly to his. Hot, was the only word Stiles could think of to describe the moment; her lips were full and warm and he never wanted her to take them off of his mouth, until she moved to kiss along his jaw line, and he realized that that was much better.   
***  
Malia and Stiles had one too many drinks and they soon found themselves leaving the room of requirement to have their lips clash in a less public area: the empty hallway. It was inviting, the way she'd bite his lip and tug at his hair. It was everything Stiles had needed to get his mind off of-  
"Ahem..." Derek.   
Stiles and Malia split apart instantly as Derek interrupted their moment. They'd forgotten that the professors often wandered near the room of requirement on weekends to catch drunken kids to give them "warnings."  
"Derek!" Stiles said in surprise, his voice croaky yet not the least bit nervous. "What brings you to this part of the school?"  
Derek glared at him, ignoring the lame attempt at a joke. "Professor Hall, to you."  
"Ha. Professor Hall, in the hall."  
Derek rolled his eyes which made Stiles grin even wider. Grumpy little --well, not that little --Derek.   
"Malia, what are you doing with him?" Derek asked her but kept glancing over to watch Stiles leaning awkwardly against the wall.   
"Oh. Suddenly you care about me? It doesn't matter what I'm doing with him. It's none of your business," Malia sassed Derek, taking Stiles by surprise.   
"Wait, do you two know each other?" Stiles blinked. Malia rolled her eyes; that was the moment that Stiles had a little light bulb go off in his mind, and it pulled Stiles out of his useless drunken state. Eye rolling was a very regular thing for people in the Hall family. "Wait a second. Malia... Malia Hall?"  
"Geez. I thought you knew who I was?" Malia looked insulted, and honestly a little ridiculed by the fact that Stiles had thought she was just some random girl at the party.  
Stiles had made out with --and almost took to the abandoned girls' washroom --Derek's cousin.   
"Shit," he muttered, backing away. He'd met her before, he remembered, when they were young. She must've been only ten and not even in Hogwarts yet. They'd met because her father was Peter Hall, brother to Derek's and Scott's abandoning father, Auror Rafe Hall, and who happened to want to try to fix up the family again. The Hall family reunited --except for Rafe, of course --at a nice dinner which Stiles and his parents were invited to. The dinner did not resolve any tension in the Hall family, in fact, it just made it worse, which is probably why Stiles never saw or heard from Malia again, even though she was just a grade under him this whole time.  
"Go back to your common rooms," Derek ordered, annoyed with both of them.  
"Come on Derek, do you know how many times you've done this while you were attending this school? A lot of times. So calm down," Stiles groaned.  
"Prof-" Derek angrily tries to correct him but is interrupted.   
"Professor Hall. Who cares. You're still just Derek to me."  
"Don't interrupt me."  
Stiles groaned again, walking closer to Derek so he was right up in his face. "Do you suddenly not care about me? I mean, I'm Stiles. You took care of me when ever things were rough, like even when I was being bullied. You were my friend. I grew up around you. I'm not going to speak formally to you, Derek."  
"Mr. Stilinski-"  
"Stiles. My name is Stiles. That's what you've been calling me since I was seven. Stiles. And you're Derek. You are not suddenly superior to me; you're just Derek, who cried like a baby when his little brother told him that he hated him. You're lucky that Scotty grew up and now knows how to handle the fact that his brother isn't his brother anymore."  
"Stop." Derek was completely angry; even humiliated, but he didn't let that show. "You made your date leave."  
Stiles looked around to see that Malia was in fact nowhere in sight. He felt bad for not saying goodbye, but he was too suddenly angry to care.


	8. Detention

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stiles gets detention, which he thinks is insanely stupid, but after a few nice moments with Derek, it isn't so bad anymore. He'd missed his friend.

Stiles had detention for a week. Malia, of course, was off the hook because she hadn't really done anything. Derek sat after school that Monday in his office, awaiting Stiles' arrival. Derek had difficulty completely understanding what Stiles had said while he was intoxicated and rambling off to Derek. Stiles was obviously completely angry about something, and even went on to shove Derek. Derek had put Stiles in detention simply because he needed to learn his place; Stiles was a student, and Derek was his professor, it was as simple as that. Sure, maybe he had suddenly became really attractive and was only an inch shorter than Derek, but he was still just as immature as he had been when he was ten years old.  
There was a knock at the door. Derek, assuming it was Stiles, called out for him to come in. Sure enough, Stiles walked in, his tie hanging loose around his neck as usual and his shirt typically un-tucked, which Derek decided to point out.  
"Tuck your shirt in. Iron it sometime as well. Also, tighten up your tie." Derek checked out Stiles quickly once more before looking back down at his paper work.  
Stiles' mouth hung open as usual and he rolled his eyes, tucking in his shirt but not tightening the blue tie. "Hello to you, too," Stiles grumbled, appearing quite unhappy about the detention situation. "So Professor, what's the plan for today? Are you going to make me just sit quietly for an hour, or maybe make me sort out your papers? I mean, that desk does look pretty unorganized."  
Derek held back his growl. "I'm actually going to be taking you to the quidditch pitch."  
"Okay. Cool. Why?"  
Derek stood up. He walked behind Stiles to his coat hanger and grabbed a light leather coat. "You are going to scrub down the change rooms before the season starts. Tryouts are on Friday, meaning that there's going to be lots of sweaty students in there this week. For your detention on Friday we will be cleaning it again."  
"I knew that. I've been on the quidditch team for years, you know?" Stiles muttered, following Derek out of his office and down the stairs. "Scott is the captain, actually. I'm not the co-captain or anything, but I am pretty important in the team, and they wanted me there for tryouts on Friday actually so I was wondering-"  
"No." Derek told him stiffly.  
"You don't even know what I was going to ask!"  
Derek shook his head. They were already leaving the classroom to make their way to the quidditch pitch. "You were going to ask if I could make an exception for you on Friday by allowing you to miss detention to watch the tryouts. My answer is no. There will be enough players evaluating the new kids trying out, and they definitely don't need your snarky comments."  
Stiles scoffed, walking quicker so that he was standing beside Derek. "Come on! You were on the quidditch team. You must understand how great it feels to be in seventh year and be like a leader for the new players. Knowing you, you probably would throw quaffles at their heads to try and scare the kids. It was fun, huh?"  
"I don't care," Derek smiled, and Stiles nearly throws a fit but he knows how to keep it in.  
***  
The whole time that Stiles was scrubbing down the change rooms he kept trying to hum or start a conversation with Derek, but he'd just kindly tell him to stop talking and get back to work. To Stiles, it felt like a year had passed, and once Derek finally told him that their time for the day was done, Stiles felt as if he has been held captive by the Ten Rings and he had just been found and could finally go home and get a burger. But before Stiles could skip gleefully out of the change room, Derek grabbed his arm, stopping him from leaving.  
"Geez, what now?" Stiles groaned, tugging himself away from Derek.  
"I need to talk to you," Derek told him, his tone completely serious, but it had a sense of vulnerability to it. Stiles kept his mouth shut for once and stared at Derek, waiting to hear what he had to say.  
"I talked to my mom last night," Derek stated.  
"That's great for you," Stiles grumbled. "Can I go now?"  
Derek didn't even answer that, he just continued speaking so Stiles understood that the answer was "no." Derek was staring directly at Stiles' chest as he spoke, never his eyes. "She told me that I had to be nicer to you."  
"You think?" Stiles scoffed and Derek's eyes suddenly flickered up to his, his eyebrows furrowed slightly as usual.  
"You still have detention for the rest of the week, but um... I'm sorry," Derek mumbled the apology so quietly that Stiles barely had a chance to understand what he was saying.  
"You're sorry? Oh. Tell me, what for, exactly?" Stiles crossed his arms in front of his chest.  
Derek had a hard time trying not to roll his eyes, but he somehow managed to speak without doing so; his eyes keep locked with Stiles'. He didn't explain his apology just yet; instead he asked, "Don't you think we should stop doing this?"  
Stiles' irritating smirk grew wider. "Doing what, Der?"  
"Pretending like we don't know each other."  
Stiles almost slapped him in the face. "You're the only one doing that. I've been trying to talk to you all week, and even all day in case you haven't realized!"  
Derek finally removed his gaze from Stiles' eyes. He trudged over to the change room bench, taking a seat and clasping his hands together, staring down at the ground. "I thought that you would be angry with me."  
Stiles was happy that he was finally getting Derek to open up to him after trying all week, but he stood back, concerned by how frustrated Derek seemed. It was not the usual type of frustration, it was as if he was frustrated with himself instead of being annoyed with Stiles for once. Stiles' shin hit against the bench, "Why would I be angry with you? You haven't even given me the chance to speak with you for a couple of years."  
"That's exactly why I thought you would be angry," Derek tried to explain. "I guess I'm just sorry that I didn't stay around after your mom died."  
"Geez," Stiles sighed, finally taking a seat down at the bench, sitting right across from Derek, their knees just touching, "Of course, I was mad for a little while, but you could've came back and I would've forgiven you. I was so confused for years, Derek, of why you just stopped talking to me. I mean, you just stopped." Derek looked up at Stiles, his eyes full of guilt as he remains unspoken. Stiles licked his bottom lip quickly before asking a question that he had been pondering over for years. "Why did you stop?"  
Derek fiddled with his own fingers, but was suddenly looking at Stiles'. "Your mom... she..." Derek couldn't find the right words to say. He still couldn't tell anyone the true reason that he left.  
"What? Did she tell you to stay away from me or something? She was probably joking. Even though she was dying, she was joking. She loved you."  
Derek smiled sadly at Stiles' hands. "She told me to take care of you, actually."  
"Wow, you sure did a good job at that," Stiles managed to joke, even though Derek is beginning to notice the start of tears forming in his eyes at the mention of Claudia.  
"I left... I stopped talking to you because I didn't know what to do with the responsibility, I guess. I even stopped being close with Scott, which was such a stupid mistake. I spent a majority of my summers with Albus, and eventually I graduated and headed straight to college without looking back." He wasn't lying, he just didn't tell Stiles the whole truth.  
"And you didn't even think of calling or anything? My mom was dead. I had three best friends, who were Scott, my mom, and you. I lost two of my best friends. And Scott was just a kid like I was, he didn't know how to deal with everything."  
Derek was still watching Stiles' hand, which was beginning to shake. He wasn't thinking about what he was doing when he reached over and placed his hand over Stiles' to calm him down. "I'm sorry that I left you," Derek said, his voice clear and honest.  
The change room door suddenly opened when a few quidditch players came in to change for a quidditch practice, just like a lot of students always did during tryout week. Derek didn't want to remove his hand from Stiles'; he wasn't planning on doing so and he couldn't decide whether he was grateful or not once Stiles stood up, his hand moving away.  
A boy that Derek recognized from Stiles' Defence Against the Dark Arts class walked in, and he even winked at Stiles. Derek furrowed his eyebrows at the boy, Aiden, as Stiles was trying to leave the change room. "Geez, Ethan," Stiles muttered, elbowing the boy's arm.  
"Ethan? I thought your name was Aiden?" Derek asked the boy.  
Ethan swung his arm around Stiles' shoulder, which made Stiles visibly uncomfortable. Derek figured that they weren't close by Stiles' reaction. "You're thinking of my brother. I have never seen you in my life. Stiles, is this your new guy? Good job with him, he's really-" Stiles elbowed Ethan in the chest, cutting him off before he could say any more.  
"This is my professor," Stiles grumbled, not looking Derek in the eye.  
"Oh." Ethan looked apologetically at Derek. "Why were you holding his hand?"  
"Who was holding whose hand?" Scott's voice was suddenly in the room as he walks through the door. He high-five a few other players who Derek did not know, before his eyes landed on Derek. "Hey," Scott said, awkwardly staring at Derek as he stood at Stiles' side. "You guys held hand for your detention?"  
Stiles looked as if he was about to die. Ethan finally let go of him once Derek stood up. "He made me clean the change room," Stiles explained.  
Scott patted Stiles' shoulder, "Wow. That sounds like fun." Scott grinned, as if he was proud of his ability to be sarcastic.  
Stiles, however, appeared to be un-amused as he shrugged away from Scott and Ethan. "I'll see you later," he said to no one specifically, but it was most likely addressed to Scott.  
***  
Derek wasn't sure if Stiles would even show up for detention the next day, but he did. Stiles walked right into Derek's office, somehow looking better than he had the day before, which frustrated Derek. The two of them didn't even greet each other before Derek dragged Stiles out of his office, down the stairs, and out into the halls.  
"Where are we going today?" Stiles asked curiously. His eyes appeared to be tired, as if he hadn't slept well the night before, but his voice was loud and jumpy; Derek suspected that Stiles hadn't taken his medication that morning, and he also realized that the tired eyes were what somehow made Stiles more attractive than usual, which didn't make sense.  
Derek and Stiles stood side by side as they walked, their hands occasionally bumping. "A few kids were trying to make a polyjuice potion in the abandoned girls' washroom last night. They made a huge mess, and so I volunteered to clean it up. Well, you're cleaning it up. It will be less work than yesterday."  
"Okay, that's fine," Stiles didn't sound annoyed. "Do you know what happened to the kids? Like, did they turn into anyone cool?"  
"Yes. It's pretty weird when you see your doppelganger walking around," Derek grinned, thinking about the previous night when he was heading to bed and suddenly saw himself down the hall, staring at him in horror before trying to run away. Derek had caught the kid of course.  
Stiles let out a short laugh. "Why would someone want to be you? Wait that sounded rude."  
"No offence taken," Derek assured him. "I don't know, but the real question is how did they get a piece of my hair?"  
Stiles reached up and jokingly pulled out a small piece of Derek's hair and flicked it into his face. "Easily," Stiles answered but Derek just glared. Despite his glare, something told Derek that this day would be better than the day before.  
***  
The clean up was easy. Derek had exaggerated the measures of the mess, so it really only took Stiles half an hour to clear. Derek actually let Stiles speak that time but he didn't say anything back, so Stiles just sat on the floor, cleaning up, while talking to himself. Stiles mostly joked about what would happen if he took some of the polyjuice potion, and how fun it would be to be Derek for the day. He almost even took a lick of the remaining potion left in the pot but Derek kicked his hand away.  
"What do we do now?" Stiles asked while he was washing his hands at the sink.  
Derek was standing beside Stiles, maybe too close, as he let his finger run over the small snake on the side of the sink. He thought about all the history that had happened right with this sink, but his thoughts were interrupted by Stiles' question. "I think you can just go?"  
"You don't need me anymore?" Stiles almost seemed sad, as if he wanted to spend more time with Derek.  
"You have school tomorrow. You probably need some sleep."  
Stiles shrugged, going to go dry his hands off. "I don't sleep much anyways. It's only five o'clock. That's way too early to sleep. Let's go get some food."  
"I was planning on, um..." He couldn't tell Stiles that he was going to go watch the telly in his room because the students weren't supposed to know that the professors got televisions in their room if they wanted. But Stiles was different, he couldn't deny that. "I was going to watch a show. It's the season premiere and it starts at seven."  
Stiles made a face, obviously quite confused. "Like, on your laptop? Can I watch it with you? I need something to watch while Doctor Who is on hiatus."  
Derek sighed. "There's a TV in my room. I don't think I'm supposed to take students into my room." The same excuse, Stiles was different, kept going through Derek's mind. "But I guess that rule has never been discussed, exactly."  
Stiles hit Derek on the arm, "Awesome. Let's stop by the great hall, I'll sneak in and grab some food, and we'll head back to your room to watch this show you speak of."  
Of course, Derek couldn't protest.  
***  
"Why didn't you grab any duck for me?" Derek glared as they wandered the halls, towards Derek's room, which Stiles was still unsure about its whereabouts.  
Stiles made Derek hold the huge plate of piled up food because there was more of a possibility that Stiles would drop everything over Derek.  
"Ducks aren't exactly my favourite thing to eat. They're too cute," Stiles grins. "How did you even know that they had duck today?"  
"I could smell it." Derek stated as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.  
"Um. Alright," Stiles was confused but didn't question any further. He was practically skipping as he walked. "So, where do you professors sleep? I've always wondered that. You know, me and Scott, last year especially, would go wandering the halls on the weekends trying to figure out every secret hiding spot in this castle. The Hufflepuff common room is super easy to find in case you were wondering. Well, I guess it was easy because we were sort of following Isaac. I don't know why Scott likes the kid so much, but they're friends. Slytherin took forever to find. And obviously Scott and I already knew were the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw common rooms were. By the way, Scott is a traitor to you Gryffindor folk because he admitted that the Ravenclaw room was much cooler than Gryffindor's."  
"You're not supposed to go into the other house's common rooms," Derek said, but he really didn't care too much.  
"No one cares about that rule, Der." Stiles was suddenly grinning gleefully, and Derek had a strong suspicion that it was due to Derek finally not reacting negatively towards him calling Derek something other than "Professor Hall."  
"I've never been in the Ravenclaw tower."  
"I'm sure I'll sneak you in someday. Just make some polyjuice potion. Or even shave and I'll let you borrow a tie. Wait, don't shave. I like the stubble."  
Derek didn't respond, but he felt oddly flattered. Derek had suddenly stopped walking and was standing in front of a brick wall. Stiles took a few seconds to realize that they had in fact done so.  
"Is this it?" Stiles asked, and Derek answered by pulling out his wand and tapping on a few stones in some sort of pattern before they opened up and spread apart to reveal a winding staircase.  
"Don't you dare tell anyone about this," Derek sternly told Stiles. Stiles nodded, understanding that Derek was not joking around at all, though joking around wasn't something he did often. "Okay, now, come on."  
Stiles followed Derek through the bricks, which quickly returned to their original places after they passed up a few steps of stairs. Stiles continued on, following Derek. The staircase spanned into two different ones. Derek climbed left, and as they continued walking, the stair split into four. Derek took the one on the far right. They kept walking silently for a little while longer until they reached a sturdy looking door.  
Derek opened it up, revealing a surprisingly spacious suite. Stiles had never really thought about what the professors' sleeping corridors looked like, but he didn't expect them to be like this. Derek's room resembled a nice and clean studio apartment; he had an office space set up by the window, which didn't look like it was used very often by the lack of items on the desk, but it was still only the second week of school. Against the far wall, was his bed, which was unmade yet, looked comfortable; in the corner, near the door there was a kitchen area with a sink and a small fridge. The only doors besides the entryway were the closet doors and one that was opened up to a bathroom.  
"You need to decorate more," was all Stiles said as Derek went to turn on the television, placed not too far away from his bed. The only decoration besides the burgundy curtains was the collection of photographs framed on Derek's night stand.  
"I only really come in here to sleep and get ready in the morning. I don't need much."  
Stiles headed towards the window to gaze out at the view. They were quite high up, and he had a nice view of the stone circle, the forest, and even the groundskeeper's hut. Stiles always wondered about the old groundskeeper. He apparently went to Hogwarts at the same time as Voldemort, the old evil wizard. He was said to be a close friend to Harry Potter, and Stiles remembered Derek one time telling him that Albus was pretty close with him at one point. But once Albus graduated, Stiles didn't see too many people going over to visit the old groundskeeper. He makes a mental note to take someone with him to go say hello, he wouldn't want anyone to feel lonely.  
"Derek," Stiles asks, still thinking about the groundskeeper, "does it ever get lonely all the way up here?"  
Derek is seated at his bed, waiting for his premier on TV, which has still about half an hour of waiting to go. "Sometimes," he admits, "it's not too bad, but then again, I haven't been here very long." Derek suddenly started thinking about it, and realized that he'd actually been quite lonely for the past couple of years in general, so being up in the tower wasn't a huge difference for him. He still had all the people in his life that he was once close with, such as his mom or Albus, but all of the relationships seemed to have been slightly torn once Derek left. Derek unexpectedly then didn't feel so well.  
Stiles remained quiet for a few long moments, obviously thinking seriously about something as well.  
"Derek, have you ever heard of anyone switching houses?" His back was turned to Derek as he gazed out the tower's window.  
"No. That doesn't happen." Derek said it simply; he felt his palms sweat as he recognized his feeling of desolation. He didn't know where the feeling came from, but he suddenly felt empty. Even though Stiles stood two feet away from him, the two of them were on two different stars.  
Stiles crossed his arms in front of him, leaning as if there were a wall behind him to hold him up. The star that Stiles stood on held him firmly planted on his feet, while Derek could barely hold himself up as the earth crumbled beneath him, far from Stiles' reach. "You were in Gryffindor. But um... somehow, --and this is just my opinion from observing you this past week. And also from how you left-- I think you belong in Slytherin."  
Derek sat on his bed, "Explain."  
Stiles nods, because of course he's going to explain. "I don't see you as..." His voice drifted off and he stared at the ground again. Derek was about to pester him but he continued, his voice soft and hardly perceptible. "You used to be so loyal and brave. But something happened to you that changed you. And I've been trying to figure out what made you suddenly so devoted to yourself, or at least committed to stay away."  
"Are you saying that I'm neither brave nor loyal anymore?" Derek muttered, suddenly feeling a tinge of irritation; he hadn't felt irritated with Stiles since the days when he had a buzz cut and never shut up about quidditch stats.  
"I'm saying you've changed, that's all," Stiles said in an apologetic tone.  
"I hate to break it to you, but people change, Stiles," Derek told Stiles; his voice came out much deeper than he had anticipated.  
Stiles turned his head to the side as if he was about to look at Derek but stopped half way. "I'm missing a whole chunk of your life, Derek! I don't know what you did after you graduated besides study to become a professor. Heck, Scott doesn't even know. You barely even spoke to your mother for four years." Derek stared down at his hands, feeling guilty yet still annoyed because the topic of his past absence kept coming up in conversation with Stiles. He wished that Stiles would let the subject be. Derek opened his mouth to tell Stiles to change the topic or leave, but Stiles interrupted him, "Why did you have to go to school all the way in France? You didn't even visit in the summer time you just stayed in some beach house, probably, with some hot French Girls."  
"Stiles-" Derek glares, needing the kid to shut up.  
"Or maybe you were living with your hot roommate from school who didn't love his family anymore either." He was angry, which was quite the contrary to his mood five minutes before.  
"Stop-"  
Stiles turned so that his body was facing Derek, yet his eyes still weren't on him yet. "Hopefully you just got really caught up in studies, which is what Melissa claimed happened. And so because your stupid head was stuck in books all year you forgot about-"  
"Stiles!" Derek finally yelled, shutting the kid off with his powerful roar. Stiles' eyes flickered up to Derek's as he looked slightly afraid and finally shut his mouth. "I left," Derek explains in a softer tone, "because I was keeping you all safe."  
Stiles took a deep breath, his eyes darting back and forth between both of Derek's eyes so he could get a good look. Derek felt pained, because he'd never admitted to anyone before why he truly left. "What do you mean? Like, you were protecting us?" Stiles finally unfolded his arms and was making exaggerated hand gestures.  
Derek nods, covering his heated face with his equally heated hands. "My dad finally contacted me a few months after your mom died. On the phone, his voice... he didn't sound right, so I lied when he asked if we were still living in the UK. I made up some story about how we all moved to France. He wanted to see me, but I really didn't want to see him for obvious reasons, plus, he was just... giving me a bad vibe."  
Stiles stared at Derek, a crease forming between his brows as if he felt sorry for being angry.  
Derek needed to let everything out then; it was too late to scratch the subject. "He sort of continued pestering me about seeing him until I graduated. When I graduated, he told me that he was in France and that he needed to see me. He sounded angry. I figured, why not, and thought that maybe he'd finally leave me alone after I just sat down and had a simple lunch with him, so I went to France."  
"Did he hurt you?" Stiles asked with serious concern. Stiles had never met Mr. Hall, but he's heard plenty of stories from Scott, most likely.  
Derek shook his head."He told me to meet him at his hotel, so I did. You'd think that after not seeing my dad for quite a number of years after his abandonment that I'd hate him or something, but we hugged. He still just looked like my dad, and he hugged like my dad, but the way he spoke... It was all wrong." Derek knew Stiles wouldn't believe him, but he blurted it out anyways, "My dad was bitten by a werewolf."  
Stiles blinked. "Oh?" Stiles knew that werewolves were real, but they weren't exactly common.  
Derek patted the spot on the bed beside him, where Stiles hopped over and sat. "He explained that he was bitten when I was twelve. He had troubles controlling his instinct which is why he hurt Scott and ended up leaving. When he first told me that, I still felt angry because being a werewolf shouldn't have been an excuse. I didn't understand what he meant until..." Derek looked at his hands, knowing that he had to tell Stiles.  
But turns out he didn't even have to explain it to Stiles because the kid stared at him wide eyed, "Derek, did he turn you into a werewolf?"  
Derek nodded, feeling insanely nervous because he'd never told anyone before."Don't tell my mom."  
"DEREK!" Stiles screamed, way too loud. Derek, despite his werewolf senses, could never tell how Stiles was feeling. Maybe that's why Derek was so drawn to him, because he was such a mystery. "You're a werewolf! That's... that's so... awesome."  
Derek furrowed his brows and finally looked at Stiles. "What?" Apparently Stiles' mood could easily shift between happy, angry, worried, and then completely blissful in a matter of minutes.  
"Why haven't you told anyone? They won't be angry with you. Oh my god, you were "protecting us" from yourself," Stiles stared into Derek's eyes like he was some magical being --which technically, he was. "Derek, that's so... sweet."  
Derek's forehead relaxed because this was a much better reaction than he had expected. "I- I didn't want to hurt you."  
"After this show starts, or even during commercials because I won't stop thinking about this, you have to tell me everything," Stiles said, sounding like a teenage girl. "Wow, werewolf, this is so cool. I'm going to call you wolf man. No, that's lame. WereDere! No that's weird. Hm. Sourwolf. You're always grumpy, with your little sour face. I like that. Do you like that, sourwolf?" Derek rolled his eyes at the nickname, which just caused Stiles to giggle. "What do werewolves do, exactly? You must have super awesome senses, which explains why you could smell the duck. Oh, how do I smell? I haven't showered since yesterday morning, sorry. I didn't sleep much last night-"  
"I noticed," Derek commented.  
"Gee. Thanks. I'll shower tomorrow morning, I noticed," Derek commented.  
"But in case you were really wondering, you smell of soap --well, not today. Today the usual soap scent is gone. But usually it's there, along with the coconut scent from shampoo. Seriously, what shampoo do you use, woman shampoo?"  
"It makes my hair really soft, okay."  
Derek grinned. "You smell sort of like sandalwood."  
"Hm. Is that a good thing?" Stiles asked, worried about smelling bad. Apparently neither of them even began to think that this was a weird conversation.  
Derek nodded. Of course he'd thought about Stiles' scent quite often, yet he'd never admit that.  
Stiles stared at Derek long and hard. "Thanks for finally taking an interest in me in the hallways."  
Derek felt much better when Stiles said that. It was as if the small sense of the little boy that he once knew had peeked through for a moment and made Derek remember how close they once were, and still were. Derek nodded and repeated what he'd been thinking all afternoon. "You're different."  
Stiles then gave Derek the long good hug that the two of them had needed from each other for years. Stiles smiled against Derek's neck as he held onto him; Derek stayed frozen until he snapped out of it and finally hugged back. Once Derek had a hold on Stiles, he knew that it was going to be impossible to let go because he suddenly felt content, much the opposite of what he had felt five minutes ago, or even for the past five years. There was an odd peace to it, and Derek realized that he didn't have to be alone anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick question. Do any of you have any ideas on what the show that Derek watches should be? I was thinking something like Supernatural, which would then lead to Derek thinking something along the lines of, "Wow. Sam and Dean always stick together so I should stick with Scott because he's my little brother just like Sam is Dean's." Or maybe Glee, because then Stiles could pretend to hate it yet Derek finds him singing glee songs in the shower.  
> There's many different options and I would love to hear suggestions!  
> Also, thank you to everyone who has been reading this. I'm so sorry that Stiles and Derek have not had any kisses or anything yet. Thank you for putting up with me. You are very lovely and deserve everything wonderful in life <3  
> (ps if you notice any mistakes I apologize. I am the laziest person ever and this is something that I just do with my spare time when I'm avoiding things in life, such as homework, for example.)


	9. Blue Nose(s)

Stiles didn't wake up to the pillow hitting his head repeatedly; he woke up to the book thrown down on his back after the pillow thing wasn't working. He couldn't remember falling asleep, he only remembered demon traps and anti-possession symbols --it was not as weird as it sounded. He ended up really enjoying Derek's show's --Supernatural --season premier, and he had even convinced Derek to bring out the box sets and they stayed up watching season one together... the whole season... on a school night... Stiles had no regrets because it was _awesome._ But the book hitting down on his back was not.

            "Geez, what?" Stiles groaned, not opening his eyes, just kicking his leg around as he cuddles up with his pillow.

            "Wake up," Derek ordered, not messing around at all. Stiles jumped up at the sound of his voice, because _why was Derek in his room_? But then he remembered where he was. "We're both late for school. I forgot to set my alarm."

            Stiles wiped the sleep from his eye. "Well, technically, I'm not late if my professor is late."

            Derek rolled his eyes and threw some robes, trousers, and underpants at Stiles. "These are mine. It's all clean. Put it on with your tie and you'll be fine. Hurry up."

            Stiles sat up, looking at his surroundings. Derek was still wearing his trousers from the day before, which did not look like they'd be comfortable to sleep in, but his shirt was off. Stiles guessed that he'd taken it off before he went to sleep. Stiles looked at the blankets on top of him, "Derek, did you tuck me in last night?"

            Derek kept a straight face. "Yes."

            Stiles grinned. "Where did you sleep, then?"

            Derek's eyes flickered to the other side of the bed, where the sheets were just as messy. Stiles raised an eyebrow and Derek had to roll his eyes again, "I wasn't going to sleep on the couch. You're the one who invaded my room. If you have any troubles with sleeping with me then that is your problem. But you seemed to sleep nicely, if you ask me."

            "Don't start defending yourself. I didn't say anything," Stiles said, still smiling. "Shouldn't you get ready for school? Hurry up." Derek groaned at Stiles' mocking voice.

            Derek was sitting on the end of the bed, staring Stiles down instead of moving and getting ready to go to class. Stiles glanced at the clock and realized that Derek was being overdramatic because there was still fifteen minutes left before classes were to begin. It would take them about two minutes to get dressed, and only about six to walk to class, which meant that they had approximately seven minutes to waste. "Wow, this is early for me," Stiles joked, which was partially true, he usually woke up with only ten minutes to spare. "We still have time to waste. Come cuddle, sour wolf."

            Derek looked like he was actually considering it, but his eyes quickly fluttered and he stood up. "We need to get ready. We also need to leave at different times so that no one gets suspicious."

            "Wow, we fell asleep watching Supernatural together, I'd say we're going to be the talk of the town." Stiles reached his arms out after making his sarcastic comment. "No one is going to care if we hung out last night. Things are different from the way they were when you went to this school. Our drinks are more colourful, our butts less cute, and there are basically two rules: 1) don't run around the hallways drunk, and 2) don't use spells that could cause physical harm to other students or yourself. People aren't even subtle about sneaking into other houses' common rooms anymore because no one cares."

            "That's still against the rules."

            "You've said that. I don't care."

            Derek took a deep breath in and sat back down on the bed, closer to Stiles this time. "If another professor finds out that you spent the night in here...."

            "Geez, it's not like we had sex."

            "There were some cuddles," Derek shrugged, cringing as he said "cuddles," because it was not a word he'd ever said out loud before.

            Stiles was all smiles though. "Wow, you're going to get fired for cuddles. Wouldn't that be so ridiculously stupid to explain to your mom? "I cuddled with Stiles while we were both half unconscious, so then I got fired.""

            "Well, when you put it like that then it just sounds sort of dull."

            "Exactly," Stiles said, placing his hand on Derek's thigh, maybe too high up, "so why don't we give them something interesting?"

            Derek stared at Stiles for a moment before he realized that he was serious. Derek still had an ounce of responsibility in him so he stood up and Stiles' hand fell away. "Get up. Go to class."

****

            Stiles left Derek's room while Derek was in the bathroom. He had changed into his clothes, and he began speed walking to class without realizing how fast he was moving; he wasn't even realizing where he was going and so he almost ran into Lydia and Allison who were talking outside of Derek's classroom.

            Lydia caught Stiles' arm. "Hey, your hair is a mess, are you alright?"

            "My hair controls my emotions?" Stiles furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

            "Well usually you do something to your hair. Today you have ultra powerful bed-head."

            Stiles ran a hand through his hair, his fingers attempting to untangle his dark locks. "I stayed up really late."

            Allison had to quickly say goodbye to Lydia and Stiles so that she wouldn't be late to her class. Lydia turned back to Stiles. "Danny told me that you didn't come home last night." She said it in a quiet and slightly concerned voice. "Were you... with someone?"

            "I was," Stiles scratched the back of his neck, knowing that he could trust her. "I... Lydia I have a huge problem."

            Lydia pursed her lips. "Talk."

            "Have you ever really liked someone that you can't have?" Stiles couldn't help but smile as he said it. He tried wiping away that smile, but it just wouldn't fade.

            Lydia looked Stiles up and down suspiciously. "Sure."

            But before Stiles could continue explaining, Derek was in his view, standing just at the end of the hall. Derek was staring right at Stiles. Stiles quickly walked away from Lydia and into the classroom. She followed, quite confused.

            " _Stiles,_ " she followed him right to his usual seat and she sat down in the spot next to him, even though that's where _Isaac_ usually sat. "Stiles, who were you with last night?"        

            "I'll explain everything later, I promise."

            More students began flooding into the classroom, Derek joining them. Stiles refused to make eye contact with anyone.

            "Good morning, class." Derek stood at the front of the classroom, taking a seat on his desk. He was smiling too widely, which was out of character, and Lydia even noticed. "I was planning on teaching this lesson at the end of the year, but I decided to move it up on my curriculum... Today we are going to be talking about werewolves. I'm sure you're all sad to hear that we won't be spending today's class writing notes and then taking the pop quiz that I had planned, but you'll get over it."

            The class seemed pretty happy, but Stiles had to glare at Derek. "Werewolves?"

            Derek's stare turned to Stiles. "Yes. Werewolves."

            Stiles leaned back and finally a smirk came to his face. "Hm. Any reason for that, Professor Hall?"

            Stiles kicked his feet up so that they were resting on top of the desk, but Derek walked over and swatted them away. "Keep your feet off of your desk, Mr. Stilinski."

            "Or what? You're going to whack me with a spoon?"

            Derek rolled his eyes at Stiles' Supernatural reference. He decided to carry on his lesson and do his job as a teacher. Derek used his wand to close all the curtains over the window, and then he pulled down a projector screen. With some more flicks of his wand, a photo of a horrible looking werewolf appeared on the screen.

            "Dude, you fugly," Stiles said as a response to the photo. Derek rolled his eyes once more. "Do actual werewolves look like that?"

            "They can, yes, though it's less graphic." Derek explained in a calm tone.

            "So, they have no eyebrows? Where do the eyebrows go?"

            Derek knew that the questions were directed at his own appearance as a werewolf. Derek nodded. "I don't know what happens to the eyebrows. But that's not important." Derek was hoping that Stiles didn't plan on saying any more, but this was _Stiles,_ so the chances were low. "So, everyone, tell me what you know about werewolves? Anything. I need to see where this class stands as this used to be a part of the third year curriculum, but that changed."

            A few kids offered their hands and Derek nodded at all of them, expanding on the explanations. He was pretty happy to hear what his students knew so far. When Stiles raised his hand, Derek almost didn't pick on him, but what he had to say c _ould_ contribute to the class; he had at least a bit of hope in Stiles' knowledge that morning. But he was wrong.

            "Werewolves can just be normal people, right? Like, they could've killed a man, and then proceed to be your best friend and no one would ever know."

            Derek had not killed anyone purposely; animals and maybe a few other werewolves, sure, but never humans. "That can be true. Some wolves are going to kill, especially when it comes to protecting their pack-"

            Stiles started snickering to himself, completely ignoring most of what Derek had to say. "Just like... "My name is Dean Winchester. I'm an Aquarius. I enjoy sunsets, long walks on the beach and frisky women and I did not kill anyone.""

            Derek really regretted showing Stiles Supernatural. No one except Stiles, not even Derek, found what Stiles had to say funny, simply because they didn't understand. Also, because Derek just was annoyed.

            "Who the hell is Dean Winchester?" Isaac asked from across the classroom, looking up from his text book.

            "Stiles, did you sleep alright last night?" Kira asked from where she was sitting right behind Stiles.

            "I may have stayed up all night watching Supernatural with my... friend," Stiles started giggling again and he had to wipe happy tears from his eyes. He almost never laughed, and this is how he realized how tired he actually was. "I may have only slept for an hour, but it was a really peaceful hour. I had wonderful dreams."

            "Of?" Lydia decided to ask, her voice sounding quite amused.

            "Lollipops and candy canes." Stiles started laughing again.

            "Mr. Stilinski, do you need a moment in the hallway to recollect yourself?" Derek glared.

            "I'm alright Derrie." Stiles covered his face with his hands and laid his face on his desk.

            Derek shook his head and got back to his lesson. It worked for most of the class when everyone forgot about Stiles because they realized that wolves are actually really fascinating. Stiles managed to stay quiet because he found it cute how excited Derek got while teaching everyone about werewolves and moon phases.

            Stiles didn't even notice the note that Lydia had passed to him until she poked his bicep. Stiles momentarily took his attention off of Derek to look at the note which read,

_It's him, isn't it? He's the one that you're all in love with. Your bed eyes are obvious._

At the bottom of the paper there was a little cartoon drawing of Derek and Stiles sitting on a bed with hearts floating around them. Stiles' mouth gaped open and he glanced at Lydia who was grinning at him. Stiles quickly scribbled back,

            _I'll explain later, okay?_

"Passing notes, I see!" Derek commented loudly as he stepped towards Lydia and Stiles' desk and grabbed the paper right out of Lydia's grip right after she read it. His eyes quickly scanned the paper. At first, he looked ready to read it out loud to the entire class, but as he read it, his mouth snapped shut. Derek folded the piece of parchment and placed it on his desk, returning to the lesson as if nothing had ever happened. Stiles was cringing from embarrassment, and Lydia was smiling in a way that looked as if she was ready to laugh. Derek didn't make a comment or even look over at the two of them for the remainder of the class.

***

            Stiles may have fallen asleep during his potions class, and Scott may have turned his nose blue for two hours while he was sleeping, but Stiles still had a good afternoon. He didn't pay any attention during Astronomy because he spent the whole class explaining his situation with Derek to Lydia. He didn't really know what their situation was exactly, but he felt strongly that there was something there between; they couldn't just be "friends". Lydia just rolled her eyes a lot during their conversation, but she was also smiling, which was a good sign, Stiles thought. Although, she may have just been smiling because his nose was still blue at the time.  And then, after classes were over, Stiles headed over to Derek's classroom.

            The blue nose was gone by then, of course, but Derek was still giving Stiles a very weird look.

            "What?" Stiles asked, feeling insecure about his face for a moment. "Lydia told me the blue nose thing was gone! Did she lie! I swear, Lydia, I'm gonna-"

            "Blue nose thing?" Derek furrowed his eyebrows together like he always did.

            "Wait. So, my nose is not blue?"

            "Your nose is not blue." Derek was still insanely confused.

            Stiles nodded. "Then why are you looking at me like that?"

            "Lydia made a little drawing for you earlier in class today."

            Stiles gulped and stuck his hands in his pockets. "I am aware of that."

            "I just am having troubles comprehending its meaning."

            Completely ignoring that, Stiles asked, "So what does today's detention have in store for me? Am I removing the gum from under the tables in the great hall-"           

            "No. Stiles- they have a spell for that. But I-"

            "They do? Cool! That would've been useful back in Primary School."

            Derek got up from his seat to walk towards Stiles. "Stiles, I don't care about detention right now I just want you to answer my question."

            "You didn't ask one."

            Frustrated, Derek rolls his eyes. "Explain Lydia's note."

            "Well, she's very convinced that I have a crush on someone who looks an awfully lot like you."

            "And do you?"

            "Have a crush on someone that _looks_ like you? No."

            Derek stepped forward again, standing only a foot away from Stiles. "And what about me?"

            "How do I feel about you?" Derek already knew the answer to it, but for some reason he wanted to hear him say it. So, because he's stubborn, Stiles continued to be his sarcastic and ridiculous self. "Well, you're weird, for starters."

            Scoffing, Derek said, "Oh? _I'm_ weird?"

            He placed a hand on the desk behind Stiles so that he was halfway closed off. "You _are_ weird," Stiles said in all seriousness. "You're not even a human. You apparently don't have eyebrows sometimes. That's so weird. Also, this," Stiles gestured to Derek's arm, "that's weird."

            "Oh." Derek was about to pull his arm away but Stiles placed his hand over it.

            "I didn't say that it was a bad thing," he smiled, looking Derek right in the eye. Derek, who didn't say anything more, placed his other hand on the other side of Stiles, completely closing him in.

            Stiles continued. "Anyways, I've sort of admired your weirdness since the day I first met you. You're not a very social guy, you know? And I knew that you often wanted to smash my head into the ground, but you didn't, which is sort of cool."

            "I still sort of want to smash your head into the ground."

            "That's encouraging. I don't think you're supposed to say things like that to your student, Professor Hall."

            Derek didn't know when Stiles' face got so close, but he didn't mind it. "I usually don't like breaking the rules, but I'll make an exception for you."

            Stiles wasn't even trying to hide the way he kept looking at Derek's lips anymore. "Then I really think I should tell you something."

            "Hm?"

            "I've basically had a crush on you since I saw you kiss Elsa at the zoo when I was like ten."

            "Actually I think you were about eight years old."

            "Whatever. I'm almost eigh _teen_ , and I still have a stupid crush on you. I don't know if that means that I was a very mature kid who knew what he liked at a very young age, or if that means I'm still as childish as I once was."

            "The latter is most likely your answer," Derek joked, but of course all he was thinking was _crush._

            "Oh shut up," Stiles glared, yet he was grinning through it. "Also, you should probably know another thing."

            "What's that?"

            "We have a huge problem. This whole crush thing is way more than just a crush. And that's not good because you're my professor."          

            "I thought that I just explained that I'd make an exception for you."

            And just like that, they were kissing. Stiles was the one who went in first, but Derek instantly kissed him back. Stiles felt so... blissful; he felt relief wash over him as Derek basically pressed himself against him. All of the difficult moments that they went through the past ten years were finally pushed out of his mind because suddenly Derek had made everything okay."

           

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That took forever I'm sorry (both the update and the kiss)


End file.
